Once again, this chapter contains some very graphic material, so reader discretion is advised.
Chapter Thirteen: What Lies Below
We were on our way to the planet Neria, and just like before I dozed off during the flight. But can you really blame me? I mean, we had just went spelunking into a volcano, sailed a big hunk of rock through a river of lava, and had to fight a giant three-headed dragon with laser eyes! Who wouldn't be tired after that?!
Anyway, while I was sleeping I had a really weird dream. I was standing in a large room outfitted with greek architecture, and in the center was a weird looking treasure chest. Part of it was lined in silver metal, and the other parts, oddly, were made of pitch black fire. I stepped over and opened it. I leaned down to look inside and saw nothing, but then all of the sudden a wall of black fire shot out of it from nowhere. The fire shaped itself into a demonic looking head that had a broken horn and one red eye which stared at me maliciously. I turned back to see another figure behind me, standing over me imposingly. This one was a man, but I couldn't tell who because he was enveloped in a glowing aura. There was lightning all around me, and the man reached his hand out and brought down a lightning bolt straight at me. At that moment, I woke up.
I quickly realized that Starfire had turned off the microphone to my cockpit. Once I had woken up, I shouted for them to turn it back on.
"Sorry about that, Scarlette. You were doing the sleep talking." Starfire told me.
"Eh, sorry about that. I was having a really crazy dream." I said.
"What kind of dream." Link asked.
"Umm… if it's alright with you guys, I'd rather just leave it as 'crazy' for now." I told them.
"Oh. Okay. Maybe you can tell us later." Link replied.
Only a little later, we arrived at our destination: the planet Neria. From out in space, it was a light tan color enveloped in a light blue atmosphere. It kind of resembled an old, dusty softball from here in the ship. Somewhere down there was the last metal we needed: the Azurine. Once we get it, I'd be able to combine the power within of all three metals in order to make the Phantom Sword, or at least a construct of it that I could use to slay the now Majora-fused Bellum. But before all that, we had to brave whatever dangers this new planet had to offer. Upon entering Neria's atmosphere, Starfire gave us a run-down of what we had to expect.
"This is the planet Neria. It is most renowned for being covered in a global ocean." Starfire informed us.
I took a look down at the planet again, but all I saw was a dry sandy landscape all over. There wasn't any water in sight!
"Umm… Star? Are you sure you have your facts right?" I asked her.
"I do believe so. Why do you ask?" She responded.
"Then the water must be invisible or something, cause I don't see any." I told her.
Both she and Link looked down towards the ground to see exactly what I saw; nothing but sun-drenched, barren wasteland as far as our eyes could see.
"I do not understand. I've heard about this world many times on Tamaran. I should be covered in water." Starfire said.
"You've never actually been here though?" Link asked her.
"No. But I've heard stories from my K'norfka; stories of raging waters and exotic creatures living beneath them." She answered.
I had no idea what a ken-orf-kla or whatever it was she said was, but regardless, water or no water we were going down there. Still, it looked really hot and dry down there. I was really hoping that this wouldn't take too long. But most likely, it would.
The moment I hopped out of the T-Ship, I felt the hot desert air hit me like a heater set on max. It wasn't as hot as the volcano back on Crimsone, but it was still really uncomfortable. Although, it did feel a little humid, so maybe there was some water somewhere on this planet. Starfire flew up high to get a better look of the area, but she concluded that there was no water in the area. We had no choice; we had to traverse the desert to find the Azurine.
"Aww, c'mon! Can't we just take the T-Ship and fly around the planet to find it?" I asked.
"No. The T-Ship's tank of fuel is on the low. We need the remaining fuel to get back home." Starfire answered.
"Wait. We've been flying so long that we're almost out of gas?!" I exclaimed. "What does that thing run on anyway?"
"It runs on the same power source that fuels Cyborg's power cell." She told me.
Well that was just great. Not only did we have to trek through this blazing heat, but now our ship was low on fuel and the only one who could recharge it was light years away from us right now.
"Did anyone at least pack sunscreen?" I asked. "Cause we're gonna get major sunburn if we're out here too long."
"Just use a shield like an umbrella or something. I'm sure you'll be fine." Link told me.
Yeah, I didn't think my powers worked like that, but whatever. I guess the choice now was brave a desert or do nothing and let Bellum… Majellum… (Oh, whatever!) the giant one-eyed squid thing devour everyone on Earth. My choice was obviously to take the risk of a little sunburn.
I had been right about this journey taking a while, because we had been out in the desert for nearly five hours and we still hadn't found anything. Nothing that looked like Azurine was anywhere in sight. Heck, there weren't even any normal rocks laying around! By now my mouth was completely dry, and I had a mild sunburn.
"How much longer is this going to take?! It's roasting out here!" I asked.
My mouth was so dry that my words came out all weird, and Link and Starfire didn't understand me. After wetting my mouth as much as I could (which wasn't much) I repeated myself.
"Y'know, for a demigod you seem to complain a lot." Link told me.
"Agreed." Starfire said as well.
"Hey! I don't complain that much!" I snapped. "I was just saying what was on my mind was all."
I'd be nice if these two gave me a break! I mean, I have amnesia. I didn't even know I was a demigod until a few days ago.
A few steps later, I ended up tripping on something and fell down face first. Link and Starfire came over to help me up, but I refused their help and got up myself. Some of the sand got in my mouth, but even with my dried out tongue, I could feel, or should I say taste, something weird.
"Hey! This isn't sand." I claimed, taking another lick to be sure. "It's salt!"
Upon my discovery, Starfire scooped up some of it and tasted it herself. She reached the same conclusion I had; it was salt! So rather than being in a sandbox, it was more like we were in a giant saltshaker.
"How could a desert be made of salt?" I asked.
"It's not impossible. There are such places on Earth too." Link informed me.
"Okay, but what did I trip on? There's nothing out here but salt for miles." I asked.
We all looked down at the ground again, and that's when we noticed a small crack in the salt, and coming out of it was a a little bit of water. So wait a minute, did that mean that there was water underneath of us?
"Hmm… I wonder…" Starfire thought out loud.
She dug both of her hands underneath the crack, and lifted with a tremendous amount of strength. To our surprise, she lifted up not only the cracked area, but also an entire several yards of hardened salt around it! She then threw the giant slab forward, so far that neither me or Link could see where it landed. But what was more noticeable right now was the giant hole in the salt where the slab used to be. Not only was it full of water, but it looked like the water went down for miles.
"Now I understand! The ocean has been right underneath us this whole time! It's been concealed by this layer of salt!" Starfire informed us.
"Hold on. So this entire desert is just one big pool-cover?!" I asked.
"I guess that's one way to put it." Link answered me.
"If there is any Azurine on this planet, it has to be down there somewhere." Starfire said.
So after walking through a desert for hours, which we now found out was actually completely unnecessary, now we had to dive under this 'hidden ocean', that went down who knows how far, to find the Azurine? Well, I guess it would be nice to get out of this heat.
"There's two problems with that, Starfire." I told her. "One: None of us can breathe underwater. And Two: I… umm… well… I can't swim."
I was really embarrassed to tell them that, and from the weird looks they were giving me, you could understand why.
"You can't swim?" Link asked me.
"No. I never learned how, okay!" I answered. "At least, I don't think I did. The first ten years of my life are a blur, so even if I did know before, I don't now."
"Well, you do not have to worry, Scarlette. None of us will have to swim. We can simply use the T-Ship." Starfire told me.
"Oh yeah! The T-Ship used to be a submarine before it was modified into a spaceship." Link said.
"But I thought the T-Ship was low on gas?" I asked them, a little skeptical.
"It is. Which is why we must be quick down there. The moment we find the Azurine, we return to the surface." Starfire informed us.
So now this was going to be a race against time. Actually, this was already a race against time. The other Titans back on Earth only had enough protection for three days, and I'm pretty sure those three days were almost up. Though since we had been on three different planets, it was hard to tell right now. In the meantime, we had to head back to the T-Ship. Our communicators were able to pinpoint it's location, but it was still nearly five hours away from us. Fortunately, this time Starfire was simply able to fly us back there. Unfortunately, since I had sunburn, it kinda hurt when she gripped my arm.
Once we were back in the T-Ship, we flew it back over to where Starfire made the huge hole in the salt, which also served as our gateway to this planet's true aquatic environment.
"We have to be quick. There is only enough fuel in the T-Ship to last for three hours. It will take about an hour for us to return home, so we can only spend a maximum of two hours down there." Starfire informed us.
"Okay, but what happens if we don't find any Azurine before two hours is up?" I asked.
"Then unfortunately, we will have to make do with what we have." Starfire answered. "But let us hope it does not come to that."
"Then let's hope there's a ton of Azurine down there. It wouldn't be the best idea to face Bellum with a weakened Phantom Sword." Link said.
Without any delay, Starfire piloted the T-Ship straight down into the water hole. The hidden ocean of Neria was incredibly dark. It would've been pitch black if it weren't for these strange little lights floating around. When I looked closer though I discovered that they weren't little lights; they were tiny glowing sea urchin-like things. Well, whatever they were, at least we had a little light down here. The T-Ship kept descending into the darkness, and it was about fifteen minutes before we reached what was probably the ocean floor.
"I will turn on the front lights. We need to find a blue stone with a marking on it." Starfire told us.
"Like the two from before. But uhh… how do you know it'll be blue?" I asked her.
"Well, the word 'azure' means blue in certain cultures. And considering that it is named 'Azurine', it's probably going to be blue." Link answered me.
"Oh! Uhh… well, duh! I knewthat." I responded.
The headlights of the T-Ship turned on, and two beams of light shot out and illuminated the sea floor quite a lot. We'd definitely notice any Azurine now. But with these lights on, there was the chance that something out here would notice us. The moment I thought that, I could've sworn I heard a faint rumbling sound from behind us, but I was probably just being paranoid.
Nearly an hour passed and there was still no sign of any Azurine. I was beginning to wonder if this planet even had any metals at all! All of this time looking for a tiny blue stone while cooped up in this cockpit was starting to give me a cramp (which was murder on top of my sunburn), and I don't think I was the only one. I was about to fall asleep again, when I happened to notice a very faint blue glow coming from the right.
"Hey guys! Look! There's something blue over there!" I said.
Almost immediately, the T-Ship made a sharp turn to the right. Strangely, as we did so, I thought I heard something behind us turn also; something big. I didn't see anything behind us though, so it must've been an ocean current or something. About ten minutes later, we reached the place where the glow was coming from, and luckily it was exactly what we had been looking for: the Azurine! It was surrounded by a bunch of other stones that looked very similar to it, but they were all dull and gray. Were they all Azurine that had lost their power or something.
"We found it!" Starfire exclaimed.
"Great! Now let's get it and then get out of this creepy place!" I said.
"Eh… one problem. The T-Ship doesn't have any way to salvage it." Link said. "Someone is going to have to go out and get it."
"Well, don't look at me! I told you, I can't swim!" I reminded them.
"Don't worry. I'll do it. I've been in a situation like this before." Link said.
Starfire urged Link not to do it, and that she would do it instead. Link told her it was no problem, telling her that it was probably too cold out there for her. They kept going on about which of them would retrieve the Azurine for a few minutes, and it was getting irritating. I was about to fall asleep again, thinking that they'd resolve this soon, when I heard that large sound again. I turned around to look again, assuming that like before, there would be nothing there. But this time I was greeted by two horrifying yellow eyes, each on the sides of a mouth surrounded by tentacles!
"Uhh… you guys…" I interrupted. "You might wanna take a look behind you."
Link and Starfire turned around to see exactly what I saw. Once we had all noticed it, the mouth roared, revealing a maw full of razor-sharp teeth! I knew it; we were being followed by a giant, tentacle-mouthed fish monster thing!
"FLOOR IT, STAR!" I shouted.
Starfire revved up the T-Ship and got us out of there before the monster's teeth came down on us. We had gotten out of there, but unfortunately, while the monster had missed us, it had struck the area where the Azurine was and swallowed it. Even so, Starfire was now piloting the T-Ship upward, away from whatever that thing was.
"How do you like that?! We spend nearly an hour down here finding nothing, then we finally find the Azurine, then it gets eaten!" I exclaimed angrily.
"What was that thing anyway?" Link asked Starfire.
"I… do not know." She answered.
"What?! You don't know?!" I asked. "Our expert on alien worlds is clueless about this thing?!"
"I have never been below the waters of Neria, much less know about it's fauna! For all that I know, it may have been an undiscovered species!" She responded.
"So what're we going to do about the Phantom Sword?!" I asked.
"I guess we'll have to make do with what we have." Link answered me.
"So I'll have to face Bellum at half-strength?! I'll never be able to beat him like that!" I said.
"I am surprised by your reaction, Scarlette. I did not think you would be the kind of person to surrender." Starfire scolded.
What she just said hit my pride like a razor-sharp arrow. It made me think of my past, how Roman and the other members of my old gang would always say that I'd never amount to anything; that I'd never be important to anyone. But now I had new friends, friends who actually liked me and cared about me; friends who were back on Earth, fighting back a foe that I was supposed to face. And then there was Spikey; the guy who caught me, but then later accepted me, even though I was an ex-thief and he was a vigilante. He and the rest of them were willing to risk their lives despite the fact that their foe greatly overpowered them; and that's exactly what I had to do too!
"Whoever said I was giving up?" I asked with a serious tone.
"You did. Kind of." Link answered.
"Well, now I'm saying this: Azurine or no Azurine, I'm taking Bellum and Majora down! Even if I have to power the rest of the Phantom Sword with my own blood!" I replied.
"Now that's what I would expect to hear from a demigoddess." Starfire told me.
" . Well… at least we got away from that thing." I claimed.
"Umm… Scarles? You may want to take another look." Link told me.
I turned around to see the yellow eyes from before in the distance, being propelled upward by a gigantic eel-like body! It was going almost as fast as the T-Ship, as it was only several yards behind us!
"That thing is chasing us?! You've gotta be kidding me!" I snapped.
"We are nearly to the surface. Hopefully it will not pursue us beyond there." Starfire informed us.
The T-Ship sped up enough to put us a good distance ahead of the monster. There was no opening in the layer of salt encasing the ocean, but we didn't have time to make one. There was no choice but to simply plow right through the planet's crust, which is exactly what we did. Unfortunately, put some strain on the T-Ship, so we had to give it a break for a little while. In the meantime, the three of us jumped out of the cockpit to get all of the kinks out of our joints.
"That was a close one." I said.
"We may not have the Azurine. But at least we still have our lives." Starfire said.
"Which we're all going to need if we even want to try to defeat Bellum." Link added.
"Hey, like I told you guys, I'm not giving up. I'll find a way to win, I swear." I told them.
At that moment, the ground beneath us began to shake, and the water in the hole that the T-Ship made was splashing around violently. Then without any warning, the monster that was chasing us before burst through the hole! Now that it was on the surface, I could see that it looked like some kind of eel and octopus hybrid. But there was one thing about this thing that differentiated it from either an eel or an octopus… it was the size of a skyscraper!
"I thought you said it wouldn't follow us to the surface!" I shouted at Starfire.
"I didn't think it would!" She responded.
"There's one bright side to this: now that we can fight it, maybe we can get it to cough up the Azurine!" Link claimed.
Well, I guess our objective here was clear: Get this thing to hurl, and get the Azurine from it's… uhh… puke. Now that I thought about that didn't sound fun, but what choice did we have. It was either salvage the Azurine from this thing's throw up and then face Bellum with a complete Phantom Sword, or run away like a coward and face Bellum with an incomplete Phantom Sword. Either way I was going to face Bellum, and I am no coward, so my decision was obvious: I was gonna beat this thing up until it coughed up what's ours!
The monster stretched out it's mouth tentacles at us. It didn't appear that they could go very far, but surprisingly they extended nearly fifty feet! Link and I got out of the way, but Starfire got caught in one of them. She didn't have to worry too long though, because Link fired his hookshot into the tentacle, pulled himself over to it, then cut it off with his Master Sword. He also managed to catch Starfire as she fell.
"You alright, Star?" He asked her.
She nodded yes and then returned her attention to the fight. Jeez, this guy gets intense when his girlfriend is put in danger, though technically I knew they weren't dating. I mean, she didn't need Link to catch her, she could fly! Well, whatever. Anyway, the monster didn't really care that it's tentacle was cut off, because it just grew it back! Though to be honest, after fighting the Cardian Dragon on Crimsone, I kinda saw this coming. More of it's tentacles came at us, trying to grab us and pull us into it's maw. Link kept slicing off each tentacle as they came, and Starfire blasted them with Starbolts. I was using my twin swords to keep them at bay, trying to keep up with those two, but at the same time trying not to get nabbed! The monster reared up and let out a roar, which was the perfect opportunity for Starfire to shoot her starbolts straight down the monster's gullet. There was definitely a reaction, as the beast threw up a bunch of sea water and the remains of whatever it had eaten last, but there was still no sign of the Azurine.
I brought out my bow and aimed it at the monster's mouth. Maybe if I hit it's… uhh… y'know, that little dangly thing in the back of the throat, then maybe I could get it to spit up again. I aimed all around the thing's mouth, but it didn't have one. Well, duh! It's an alien, I should've guessed! Unfortunately I was too caught up in aiming, and the monster lunged forward with it's mouth wide open. There was no time for me to dodge. The monster swallowed me whole!
Link and Starfire were probably reacting pretty badly about this. However, I couldn't tell, cause I was caught up in sliding down the inside of the monster's throat! If I kept going, I'd end up falling into it's stomach, where I'd disintegrate in it's stomach acid! But I wasn't gonna be digested without a fight, so I formed my swords again and thrust one into the monster's throat lining. I was still sliding down, but at a much slower rate. I slammed my feet into the lining to try bring myself to a stop, which was easier said than done because the lining was really slippery. Fortunately, a lump in the monster's throat allowed me to stop, giving me just the right moment to try and cut the monster's throat open. I sunk my swords in as deep as I could get them, but the monster was just too big and I couldn't cut through.
However, the monster had definitely felt me 'tickling' it's throat, and after hearing a disgusting hacking sound, a tremendous amount of seawater came shooting upwards, carrying me with it. It was kinda like being caught in river rapids, except it was in the gullet of a giant fish monster. A moment later, I was shot out of the monster's mouth, once again landing face-first on the ground, along with several gallons of seawater, and the Azurine (Yes!).
"Scarlette! Are you okay?!" Link asked as he and Starfire ran over.
Both of them helped me up. I was still a little disoriented from the whole experience, so it took me a moment to realize they were there.
"I got it… to cough up the Azurine." I coughed.
"That's good. Now we can get out of here while that thing is stunned." Starfire said.
I forced myself free of their grip. Yeah, sure we had the Azurine now, but I wasn't done with this thing yet. If I recall correctly from what Link and Starfire had witnessed before, I became unbelievably brutal after I had become really angry; and the last two times it had happened, I had been recalling an awful experience from my past as a part of Roman's gang. This time I wanted to go into a state of 'blind fury', so I could rip this fish apart, so I thought hard of something from my past as a criminal, and I remembered a particular incident. Roman had commissioned me to aid him in a bank robbery, and I was caught by police officers. I had thought Roman set the whole thing up as a way to get rid of me. It got me so angry that I lost consciousness. That was the first time I ever went into 'blind fury', although I didn't know it at the time. I ended up killing several police officers, and when I came to, that is when Roman came to get me. He made it seem like I had just passed out and that he had to bail me out, as a way to motivate me. But the reality of it was that I had done all of the carnage, and this was when I was only twelve! Though I guess being thrown up by a monster is kind of a weird way to remember this, huh?
"Are you kidding me?! This thing ate me, and barfed me!" I snarled. "Consider it dead!"
My eyes went blank and I blacked out. The only thing different about this time was that I knew I had gone into 'blind fury'. Link and Starfire stepped back as I brought out my bow and shot several arrows straight into the monster's left eye. The beast reacted by lashing one of it's tentacles at me. I dodged it and formed my whip, which I flung into the monster's mouth. The sharp tip snagged onto the edge of it's mouth, just like a fish caught by a fishing hook. It tried to struggle back, but I kept my ground and pulled as hard as I could. With an indescribable amount of strength that seemed to come from nowhere, I pulled the fish monster right out of the water. While it was flipped upside down, flopping on the surface and trying to get back to the water, I ran over to it and climbed onto it''s head, right up to it's other eye. The last thing it saw was me thrusting my sword into it's eye, and then sliding down the side of it's head, leaving a gaping hole in the side of it's head. It's kinda like what I did to the Greleian back on Grele, but bigger. The inside of it's head was now exposed. I formed a spear in my hand (Heh. Didn't know I could) and forcefully thrust it into the monster's brain. After one final roar, the big fish died.
When it was dead I regained consciousness. I saw the giant fish monster with it's brain exposed and bleeding. I cringed at the sight, but knew very well that I had done it. I turned around and went back over to Link and Starfire, who were still in each other's arms and shivering a little.
"Hey. Are you guys okay?" I asked them.
"We should be asking you that!" Starfire exclaimed. "You… are in control right now, right Scarlette?"
"Yeah. Of course I am. Why?" I asked them. "You guys aren't… scared of me, are you?"
They could notice the depressed look on my face as I asked that, and almost immediately claimed that they were not scared. They did admit that they were a little intimidated though.
"That's good. I was afraid that you guys would leave me behind if you were scared of me." I told them.
"What?! Scarles, that's crazy." Link responded.
"You may be incredibly violent and tend to lose control sometimes, but that is no reason we cannot be friends." Starfire added.
I smiled from their kind words. Now wasn't the time for tears though. Now was the time to prepare ourselves for our return to Earth, and the battle that would await us there.
We spent about a half an hour taking a little break. After ripping open the head of a fish monster, I was exhausted, despite the fact that I had no memory of doing it. I was hungry, but unfortunately Link hadn't brought any more apples, so I had to find something else to eat. Although it was alien, and smelly, I decided to rip off a chunk of meat from the dead fish monster and eat that. There was no wood to start a fire though, so we had to use another heat source, i.e. Starfire's starbolts. It was kinda awkward for her, having her powers used like an oven, but seeing as we were all hungry she agreed to help out.
"My starbolts are capable of reaching temperatures of up to 200 degrees." She informed us.
"Uhh… just keep it high enough to get the fish cooking, Starfire." I told her.
It's a good thing she was able to control the intensity of her powers, otherwise we may have been the ones getting cooked! It didn't take long to cook, but when I took a bite, I immediately noticed that the fish had no flavor; or a very, very small flavor, and a bitter one at that. Still, it wasn't that bad, and I'm pretty sure that Link and Starfire thought so too, cause they were also eating it. After lunch was done, we brought out the three pure metals: Aquanine, Crimsonine, and the newly obtained Azurine. It was time to figure out exactly how I was going to use these things.
"So if I remember correctly, Kalena said that Scarlette was the key to utilizing the power contained in these metals." Link said.
"So, what? Am I supposed to just raise up my hand and chant some weird incantation or something?" I asked.
I jokingly raised my hand up towards the metals and chuckled a little. To my surprise however, it was exactly what I needed to do (well, aside from the incantation part), cause the red markings appeared on my arms even though I hadn't brought out a weapon. The three metals in front of us began to glow intensely, then energy waves of the same colors as the metals shot out towards my arms. The energy came at me with great force, but I was strong and stood my ground. Once the all the energy had been released, the three metals were gone! It didn't take a genius to figure out where they went; the energy that comprised them was obviously in me now. I held out my hand and concentrated to form a sword. The sword that came out was longer than the two that I usually use, and had a weird U-shaped hilt, and unlike my other weapons had a glowing tear-drop shaped symbol on it, and the whole thing had a slight blue glow around it. There was no doubt about it; this was the Phantom Sword! Or a construct of it anyway.
"Wow! Scarlette, you have done it! You have created the Phantom Sword!" Starfire exclaimed.
"How do you feel?" Link asked me.
Before I answered, I swung the sword around a bit. With every swing, a sort of mystic energy could be seen. It felt powerful, like it could harm anything, even the Majora-fused Bellum.
"I feel awesome!" I exclaimed. "So, you guys ready to kick Bellum's butt, or… whatever he has instead of one?!"
Link and Starfire both nodded in agreement. The three of us hopped back into the T-Ship and took off. We were headed back to Earth, so we could finally help the other Titans take Bellum and Majora down, and save all of the innocent lives those fiends have taken.