As with the previous chapter, this chapter contains some rather graphic material, so reader discretion is advised.

Chapter Twelve: Into the Fire

It didn't take as long as I had thought to get to Crimsone. Honestly, it felt like only five minutes in-between me hopping into the T-Ship's cockpit and us landing on the surface of the planet. Although, that could be because I fell asleep during the journey. Heh.

Link and Starfire were already outside. Starfire had to open the hatch for me and shake me awake to get me out. Once my feet were on the ground, I immediately noticed the change in temperature.

"WHEW! Who turned on the oven?! It's roasting out here!" I remarked.

"That is not surprising, since Crimsone is a volcanic world." Starfire replied.

She then pointed towards a mountain range that stretched from east to west. Several of them were spewing out lava at their summits.

"Crimsone's most notable landmark is the Cardian Mountain Range." Starfire informed us. "Well… it is really it's only landmark. It encircles the planet, from both north to south, and east to west."

"So are we going to have to climb all of those mountains to find the Crimsonine?" Link asked her.

"No. If there are any precious metals, they are likely to be found within one of the volcanoes." She answered him.

What?! We had to go underground again?! And into a volcano nonetheless?! It was already roasting enough as it was out here.

"We have to go into a volcano?! Are you crazy?! We'll melt inside one of those things!" I exclaimed.

"We should be alright as long as do not get to close to the heart of any of the volcanoes." She informed me. "Besides, my people are accustomed to such heated conditions."

"In case you haven't noticed Star, some of us here aren't exactly 'your people.'" I said.

"Actually Scarlette, you may be surprised. My kind and her kind aren't as different as you'd think." Link claimed.

Wait. Wasn't Link human? I mean, he had those crazy kitty-cat ears, but other than that and his weird spirit powers he seemed pretty human to me. But eh, what did I know, I have amnesia.

"Well, what am I supposed to do about the heat?" I asked.

"You don't look that bad. Your outfit is pretty light." Starfire claimed.

"And besides, you're half god. So just deal with it." Link added.

Yeah, I don't think half god was the same thing as 'fireproof,' but Link was right. I needed to stop complaining and just deal with it. So I wiped the sweat from my brow, and followed them to the nearest volcano. It wasn't long before we found an opening near the base of one of them. It had an orange-red glow around it, which obviously meant that there was a lot of lava down there. Hopefully, we'd be able to find the Crimsonine and get out of there before the volcano turned us into fish-sticks or… whatever.

The opening in the volcano went on for a while. Starfire claimed that it would be at least two more 'klimthorgs' before we'd get near any lava. Umm… okay. When we did reach the end, a huge backlash of heat hit us right in our faces. We were now inside a huge network of caves, and directly in front of us was an enormous pool of lava.

"There doesn't seem to be any way across." Link observed.

"I could fly us across." Starfire suggested.

"I don't think that's a good idea." I said. "Look."

I pointed over to an area of the pool that was spewing out a geyser of lava. It wasn't just in one place either; lava geysers were erupting all over the cave, and completely at random too. If she accidentally lost our grip and we fell in, that'd be the end of it!

"Hmm…" Link pondered. "Maybe there's another path through here."

"Or perhaps we could access a different volcano." Star pondered with him.

While those two were busy pondering, I happened to notice a rather large stalactite on the ceiling a few feet in front of us. That's when I got an idea! I brought out my whip and flung it up towards the stalactite. I managed to hook it, but I wasn't strong enough to pull it down on my own. Fortunately, I wasn't on my own, and Starfire noticed what I was trying to do and helped out. She fired a starbolt at the base of the rock, and the stalactite crumbled and fell into the lava pool, creating a floating platform that we could stand on.

"Hey! Great idea you two!" Link told us.

"Heh. It was nothing." I replied.

The platform began to move away from us, being pulled by the current. We quickly and carefully jumped onto it. It was a little wobbly, but we were able to keep our footing alright. The platform sent us into a narrow tunnel that would've been pitch black had it not been for the glow of the lava. About halfway through, Link claimed that he heard something odd. I was going to tell him he was hallucinating, but then I remembered when he had said the same thing back on Grele. He heard things there too, and we ended up fighting a bunch of insect-lizard things. I didn't see how anything could survive in here though, so I told him that he must've been hearing the volcano or something. Then again, we were surviving just fine in here, or fine enough anyway, so who's to say that other things couldn't survive here.

The narrow cavern we were in emptied out into a smaller room, once again full of lava, except this time there was a large pile of rocks blocking our way. The platform came to a stop, and we were unable to pass. Fortunately for us, a pile of rocks was nothing that Starfire couldn't clear for us. With a few punches, she cleared the rocks out of our way as easily as if she was punching through styrofoam. Our platform started moving again, but something strange happened. A few of the smaller rocks from before somehow leapt back onto our platform. Then they sprouted six spindly legs and opened mouths full of sharp teeth! Maybe Link hadn't been hallucinating before when he heard something!

"What the heck are those things?!" I asked.

"I believe they are Scaldras, nitrogenous organisms that thrive on heat and lava." Starfire informed us. "I believe that may have been their nest we destroyed back there."

More of these Scaldra things kept leaping onto the platform. What's worse, the platform was beginning to sink! It obviously wasn't strong enough to support us with those things on it too! It was apparent right now that we had to get them off. Link began swatting them off with his sword, cutting most of them in half as well. Starfire wasn't using her starbolts right now, it would've been to risky with the platform already weakening. Instead, she was using her Spirit's Sword that she brought along with her and using a power I hadn't seen her use before; it looked like her starbolts, but instead of shooting something, it enveloped one of her targets in a green forcefield and brought it in close to her, where she could slash it without it attacking her. That was cool!

I was about to bring out a sword of my own, but right at that moment I unintentionally formed a weapon at random. I was about to curse at the fact, but I stopped when I had noticed the weapon I had formed. It was a new one: A bow. I could make a bow?! Heh. I had no idea. I wasn't really sure how it would work, but now was as good a time as any to find out. I took aim at one of the monsters and made a motion with my arm as if I was firing an arrow. An arrow made from the same energy as the bow flew out and hit the monster right in it's open mouth. It fell into the lava right before three more jumped out. I fired another arrow, but this time three shot out instead of one! Each arrow hit their mark, and the Scaldras lifelessly rolled off the platform back into the lava.

About eight more of these things jumped out before we defeated them all. I breathed a sigh of relief from the fact that we got through that without getting burned. I discarded by new bow right after Link and Starfire noticed it.

"Oh! You are able to make the bow of arrows, Scarlette?" Starfire asked me.

"Yeah, I guess." I answered. "I guess my power to make any weapon means any weapon."

"A lot of things can be considered weapons you know." Link told me. "There might be no limit to your power."

No limit to my power, huh? That was a cool thought, but also kind of a scary one. I mean, I've heard of the kinds of things that people can become if they have too much power, my own father being one of those people. I honestly don't want any part of that. I just want to be me.

A few more hours of floating down the river of lava, through a number of subterranean caverns, we finally reached a very large room with an enormous slab of rock in the center. Starfire flew us up to the top of it, and not a moment too soon, for the platform we had been on before had now sunk into the lava. We looked up and saw an opening in the ceiling, which was really far from where we were.

"I have a feeling we are now in the heart of one of the Cardian Volcanoes." Starfire informed.

"Will we be alright?! We're not at risk of our skin melting off are we?!" I hastily asked.

"Calm down, Scarles. As long as we stay clear of the lava, we should be fine." Link assured me.

Somehow that didn't really make me feel any better, but that wasn't important right now. What was important however, was what was right in front of us. It was another large pile of rocks, this one even bigger than the last. But what was important about it was what was on top of it; a red crystal-like stone with a tear-drop symbol on it. It was the Crimsonine, I was sure of it! I hustled over to the rock pile and quickly climbed onto it. I was almost at the Crimsonine on top, when all of the sudden, the whole room began to shake.

"What's happening?!" I shouted.

"Scarlette! That pile of rock is not rock!" Starfire shouted back.

What?! I wasn't sure what she meant, but before I could ask her, I lost my footing and fell off of the rocks. I fell onto the ground right in front of Link and Star, face-first at that. Ouch. When I stood up, I saw exactly what Starfire had meant by the rocks not being rocks. Four clawed feet emerged from underneath of it, followed by a big lizard-like head from the center. That wasn't it though, as two additional heads came out, each at the end of two snake-like necks. The center head had ram-like horns, while the two on the sides each had a single horn on top that resembled a shark's fin. The rocks I had been climbing on before were actually a part of the monster's back. The Crimsonine was still there, but it obviously wasn't going to be as easy as I thought; not with this thing's heads in the way.

"Starfire, what the heck is that thing?!" I asked, feeling a little intimidated.

"A Cardian Dragon. Supreme predator of the planet Crimsone." She informed us.

All three heads were glaring at us with piercing red eyes. The whole dragon took up nearly half of the whole arena.

"If looks could kill, we'd be dead by now." I stated.

As if responding to what I had just said, the dragon reared up on it's hind legs and shot out fiery lasers from all six of it's eyes. The lasers raced across the arena in an erratic fashion, which was so unpredictable that we only barely evaded them.

"This thing can shoot lasers?!" Link asked.

"Me and my big mouth." I said to myself.

The volcano began to shake again, this time harder than before. I took a look around, and it looked like the walls were slowly sinking. No, the walls weren't sinking; the platform we were on was rising!

"Oh no! This is bad!" Starfire claimed. "The volcano is beginning to erupt!"

"WHAT?!" Link and I both exclaimed.

"If we do not get the Crimsonine and get out of here soon, there is going to be an explosion of great magnitude, with us in it!" She continued.

"Well… how do we kill this thing?!" I panicked.

"It will not be easy. The only way to defeat a Cardian Dragon is to eliminate all three of it's heads." Starfire informed.

"That doesn't sound too hard… well, apart from getting past the lasers… and teeth… and stuff." I replied.

As soon as I finished my sentence, the dragon fired out its lasers again. Link held up his shield to block them. I happened to be behind him at the moment, but Starfire was still open to attack.

"Starfire! Look out!" He warned her.

There was no time for her to dodge, so she held up her sword in an attempt to block the laser. It didn't seem like it would work at first, but all of the sudden her sword glowed green for a moment and then produced an energy shield of the same color. It not only blocked the laser, but also reflected it back at the dragon, hitting it's right head.

"Whoa! How did you do that?!" Link asked her.

"I… do not know. I just tried defending myself with my sword and then that barrier came out." Starfire answered. "Perhaps it is one of the Spirit's Sword's abilities."

So there were things about that sword that even she didn't know? Still, it was convenient. That sword of hers just keeps getting more and more awesome! Once the hype died down, we noticed that the reflected laser had rendered the dragon's head unconscious. We now had an attack plan, but we had to move fast, as the lava was still rising. Link fired out a few arrows from his cyber bow to provoke the dragon into attacking again. This time however, the dragon charged forward and snapped at us with it's razor-sharp teeth. When it snapped at me I tried counterattacking by thrusting one of my swords into it's lower jaw. All it did though was drive the dragon's head back; it didn't even leave a scratch! But it was enough to get the dragon to fire it's lasers again. But while Link and Starfire had ways to deflect them, I didn't.

"Hey! What am I supposed to do?! Dance?!" I asked.

"Try making a shield. It's defensive but it still counts as a weapon." Link suggested.

I guess that could work, although I never tried making a shield before. It didn't take a lot of effort though, as I formed a large round shield in less than a second. It was more than large enough to block the lasers, though I didn't know if it could reflect them. Turns out I didn't have to, because Link used his spirit powers to power up his shield and bounced back the laser straight into the dragon's left head. Now two of the heads were down! One to go! Or at least it seemed like it, but all of the sudden the dragon let out an incredibly loud roar, not as loud as those Mouthworms back on Grele, but loud nonetheless. But it's what happened after it roared that shocked us. Once it had finished roaring, both of it's other heads regained consciousness, as if the roar had brought them back from the dead!

"What the-! Are you kidding me?!" I shouted out loud.

"Oh. I forgot to mention. A Cardian Dragon has the power to revive it's other heads if it only has one remaining." Starfire informed us.

"So, what? We have to take out all three heads at once?!" I questioned.

"Looks like it." Link answered.

That would be a problem, seeing as it's lasers fire out so randomly, but a moment later we had a bigger problem. The dragon reared up again, but this time instead of firing lasers, it slammed itself back down onto the platform, causing it to begin breaking in two! Link and Starfire were now on one half of the platform, and I was stuck on the other, right in front of the dragon. Starfire could've flown back over, but by now the lava had risen the platform halfway through the volcano, and was now blasting out lava everywhere, blocking Link and Starfire from coming back to aid me. So now I had to face this thing on my own. Great…

The dragon reared up to fire it's lasers again, so I prepped my new shield. But the dragon didn't fire anything, but instead feigned the attack and lunged forward. It pinned me down to the ground with it's front claws, and it's middle head was glaring at me, no doubt preparing to attack. I tried to struggle free, but this thing had to weigh at least ten tons! Unless a miracle happened, I didn't think I'd be able to get out of this one. This whole event was very similar to something that happened in my past, while I was still in that old street gang in Bludhaven. The gang leader, Roman, would often train me himself, away from the other gang members. He never showed his face to me, but still managed to kick my butt every time. He'd pin me down to the ground and then tell me I was weak. It made me so angry; Roman himself made me so angry! And right now, this dragon was reminding me a lot of him!

Upon recalling those memories, my anger took control of me again and my eyes went blank. I formed a sword in my right hand and forcefully cut off one of the dragon's toes, instantly releasing it's grip on me. The dragon was losing blood, but was still strong enough to keep fighting. But I wasn't done with it yet; it was about to lose a lot more blood than that! It shot it's lasers at me again, but I formed my shield to block it. With a tremendous amount of force, I thrust my shield forward, bouncing back the lasers at all three of the dragon's heads. This only stunned it, but long enough for me to bring out my whip and latch it onto the right dragon head's horn. I pulled hard and brought the dragon's head to the ground, then quickly jumped on top of it. It had regained consciousness, just in time for it to feel my sword cutting right through it's eye. Let's see it use it's lasers when it's blind!

The dragon's left head snapped at me, but I dodged it and leap onto that head. It tried shaking me off, but I clung tight and sliced open that head's eye too. Link and Starfire could see what I was doing from the other platform, and were pretty spooked by my brutal actions. Starfire was grasping Link's arm tight and leaning close to him, and both of them were shivering, despite the volcano being like a bazillion degrees or something. After I blinded the dragon's left head, I leapt towards the middle head, grabbing onto one of it's curved horns. It was about to shoot a laser from it's eye, but it wasn't fast enough and I gouged out it's right eye. Afterwards, I climbed on top of it's head and sank two swords straight into it's cranium. The amount of pain inflicted on the dragon caused it to begin reeling backwards towards the edge of the arena. I may have been in 'blind fury' mode, but I had enough sanity to remember why I was killing this thing; so I grabbed the small bit of Crimsonine that was on it's back before I leapt off of it. The dragon slid off of the edge of the arena, but grabbed the edge with it's claws to keep it from falling into the lava. Didn't I just stab this thing in the brain?! Man it was persistent!

I guess the fact that this thing reminded me too much of Roman was keeping me in 'blind fury', as such I wanted this thing dead. So I formed my shield again and rammed into the dragon, which was enough to send it splashing down into the lava. After a few death roars, it finally succumbed from having it's flesh burned off. Once the thing was dead, I regained my sanity, although I did not remember anything that I had just done.

"Huh?…Wha?… Hey! Where'd that dragon go?" I asked, looking all confused. "It just had me pinned a moment ago."

I didn't have time to wonder however, because the volcano was only moments away from erupting. Taking a big chance, Starfire took Link's arm and flew over to me, just barely avoiding the lava plumes. She grabbed me by the arm, and flew all of us toward the volcano's opening, which was now only several yards away. Just in the nick of time, she got both of us out before the volcano violently exploded, sending a tremendous amount of lava and ash into the all landed near the foot of the volcano, and other than the fact that we were all sweaty and covered with volcanic soot, everything seemed okay. The volcano kept erupting, and one of the things that fell was a big skull that looked a lot like the dragon's head.

"Whoa! Is that the dragon?! How the heck did that happen?!" I exclaimed.

"You're kidding right?" Link asked. "Scarlette, you did that to it!"

"Okay… I think Link inhaled a bit too much volcano. Right Star?" I asked her.

"Actually I have to agree with Link, Scarlette. You were the one who pushed the Cardian Dragon into the Volcano's heart… right after you… ahem… cut open it's eyes." Starfire told me.

Were these two serious?! I did something like that?! But I didn't remember any of it!

"Okay, seriously you guys, I think I would remember doing that to something that big." I told them. "Although, I do remember getting really angry, then I blanked out."

"Perhaps that has something to do with it." Starfire suggested.

"What? Are you're suggesting when I get angry I go berserk and begin maiming my opponents? That's never happened before." I said.

Actually, now that I think about it, I have blanked out before. Back when I was a part of Roman's gang, there were times when we were confronted by the law, and something would happen to piss me off. That's when I would blank out, and when I regained consciousness I would see several police officers dead. I had always thought that Roman had killed them, but… had it been me all along? I didn't want to tell anyone the whole story about my time in Roman's gang though. I had a good thing going right now, and I didn't want to mess it up.

"Maybe it has something to do with you being Ares' daughter, or something. Maybe having his blood makes you… violent. Well… more than usual anyway." Link suggested.

"Hey! Don't you ever compare me to him! I'm not like my dad, got it?!" I snapped at him.

My response kinda freaked Link out a bit and he stepped back a little. Starfire gave me a concerned look, and I tried to calm down. I apologized for snapping at him like that, but Link claimed that it was alright; after all, he had been through something very similar.

We headed back to the T-ship, soon to leave the Cardian mountains behind, and honestly, It'd be a relief to get out of this heat. Once inside the cockpit, I immediately turned on the AC, full blast. We now had the Crimsonine, which I apparently picked up while I was in 'blind fury' mode, and as such did not remember doing so. Now we only had to obtain the Azurine, then I could make the Phantom Sword, which that girl Kalena said could defeat Bellum. I guess it was a little late to be wondering this, but I wondered if Kalena really knew what she was talking about and if we could trust her. Though Link, Starfire, and the other Titans seemed to trust her, so I guess I could too. After all, she did give the others the means to survive Bellum, or Majellum, or… whatever he's called while Majora is controlling him. I just hope that Spikey and the others were doing all right. If we were lucky, we'd be back before the Phantom hourglass runs out of sand and they'd be left vulnerable.

Now were headed to the next planet: Neria. I really hope it wasn't going to be another volcanic world like Crimsone was. But above all, I was hoping that my 'blind fury' condition, or whatever it was, wouldn't end up going out of control. I mean, I really didn't want to do to my friends what I did to that dragon!