Hey ya'll! I hope you're still willing to read some more Teen Titan-ic awesomeness, because here's a new chapter! In this new chapter, the Titans come to Dragon's Head Valley, eager to find the portal entrance there to Lucifer's Crypt. But upon entry to the crypt, they find a whole lot more than they bargained for. And are they the only ones about to pay a visit to Lucifer's Crypt? Find out, in this new chapter! Here's to hoping that you read, enjoy, and review; and I do mean review, because believe me, the fact that no one left any reviews for the last chapter I posted (even though it was the first chapter I'd posted in months) kind of hurt my feelings. Well anyway, again, I hope you enjoy this chapter and leave a healthy number of reviews!
Once again, I do not own Teen Titans or any other DC Universe elements. Now, onward with the fic!
Chapter 11:
Lucifer's Crypt
Half an hour later, the Titans had gathered at the entrance to Dragon's Head Valley. As they stood there at the entrance, gazing intently at the eponymous cluster of rocks within the valley, they felt both excited and also slightly nervous. Beast Boy in particular seemed very nervous indeed. "I really don't like this place," he stated. "I don't know why, but this valley's seriously giving me the creeps."
"It's probably got something to do with your animal instincts," said Robin. "People have said that animals always seem to have some sort of sharp sense of the paranormal. I never believed it at first, but after all we've encountered, I certainly wouldn't find it surprising anymore if it did turn out to be true." He looked straight at Beast Boy before continuing, "Therefore, if your current nervousness has anything to do with your animal instincts, and through those an animalistic sense of the paranormal, then we are all the more likely on the right track here."
"You heard the man," Cyborg said to his jittery green friend. "Looks like we're going to have to go in there."
"I know that," said Beast Boy. "But that doesn't mean I have to like it."
On that note, the five teenage heroes proceeded to slowly make their way into the valley and towards the large cluster of stones that served as the valley's namesake. After about five minutes, they'd all positioned themselves so that they were standing directly in front of the 'snout' area of the dragon head-shaped cluster of stones. Beast Boy shuddered upon full sight of the thing, for even though it was made of rocks, the ominous dragon-head shaped rock pile looked very intimidating indeed.
As the Titans continued to stare intently at the ominous looking cluster of stones, Raven closed her eyes and appeared to concentrate heavily. "I can detect a distinct magical aura around these stones," she then said.
"I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing," Beast Boy stated.
Raven raised her hand as if to tell her friends to be quiet, tensed up as if in concentration, and then raised her hands to reveal that they were now glowing with her distinctive shadowy energy. As her fellow titans watched, Raven proceeded to calmly state, "The depraved have come knocking, hear how they've cried. Open your gate, open it wide."
For what seemed like an eternity, nothing happened. But then, as the titans continued to watch, an eerie blood red light came up from within two small crevices that were positioned to resemble the dragon head's eyes, and with a crackle of red lightning, the stones positioned to form the dragon head's jaws and teeth began to move as if imitating a dragon opening its mouth. After about a minute, the dragon head's 'jaws' had opened to the fullest. Seconds after that happened, a flash of red lightning appeared at the stones located in the area that would have otherwise served as the interior of the dragon head's throat, and a massive blood red portal popped up into existence.
At the sight of the swirling blood red vortex, Cyborg whistled, looked at Robin, and said, "Well Rob, looks like you were right."
Robin nodded his head, looked at each of his fellow Titans one by one from Cyborg, to the now extremely nervous looking Beast Boy, and said, "Alright team, let's go in." And so, the five teenage heroes proceeded to slowly walk into the open 'jaws' of the dragon head shaped rock formation and through the portal, which promptly closed about five seconds after the last of the Titans had entered.
However, if Raven had happened to use her psychic contact or similar danger sensing abilities, or if Beast Boy's animal instincts hadn't already been overloaded by the sensing of the supernatural elements in the area, or Cyborg had bothered to scan the area, the Titans would have noticed that another figure was standing about a mile or two away, and had watched everything that had occurred through a pair of binoculars. Savage smiled as he saw the distinctive red light from the portal fade away five seconds after all five of the teenage heroes had gone through it. "I'll have to hand it to that dastardly dragon," he stated proudly. "The Titans have now led me right to the information I needed. All I need now is to reach the valley and just wait about a couple minutes or so before I make my presence known to the Titans."
. . . . .
If anyone had asked the Titans what they'd expected to find on the other side of the portal, they would not have been able to give a straight answer. However, what they did find was definitely something that they could have never have been properly prepared for. Upon entry through the portal, they had found themselves in a spacious room with a dark black marble floor and walls. The floor was riddled with cracks, dents, and other signs of damage. The walls and ceiling even had loads upon loads of cobwebs dangling around. However, it wasn't so much the actual room itself that left the Titans horrified and speechless. Rather, it was the way that the room was furnished.
Located in various areas of the room were several statues of absolutely horrifying looking demons. Five in particular were located not too far away from where the main altar would have been if this had been a church. These particular five statues looked so terrifying and lifelike that it was almost as if they were actual flesh and blood demons. And to make them even more terrifying, one of the five statues, which happened to be of a massive black demon, looked very ominously like an exact replica of Abaddon.
Beast Boy gulped, looked timidly at Robin, and stated, "I'm guessing those particular statues are of the knights of Hell."
And as it turned out when Raven went to get a closer look at those statues in question, particularly the area around the bases, the statues were indeed depictions of the five knights of Hell. And upon realizing this, the Titans found all the more reason to not want to ever encounter them again. The crouching blue demon statue that had massive icicles sticking out of the ground around its feet and what appeared to be blood dripping from its snarling jaws turned out to be a statue of Lilith. The green demon statue that appeared to be positioned the way a t-rex was often depicted in bodily posture with its frill extended to the fullest, its tongue fully extended from its gaping mouth, acid dripping from its mouth, and its barbed tail positioned as if it were about to sting at something turned out to be a depiction of Asmodeus. The red demon statue that had its hands in the air with live flames flaring upon them, its head facing upwards towards the ceiling, and its jaws and face positioned in a way that made it appear as if it were laughing turned out to be of the demon Samael. The golden yellow demon statue that appeared to have a wolf-like grin on its face, have a broadsword tightly clutched in each of its hands, and even have electricity crackling across its claws, fangs, and the blades of its swords was labeled to be a statue of Azazel. And of course, the snarling black demon statue was easily recognizable as Abaddon.
After another few minutes spent staring at the statues, Cyborg decided that it was time to resume their search through the rest of the crypt, as unsavory as it might be, for the Infernal Key. The other Titans promptly agreed. However, when Beast Boy just happened to turn around to face the area directly opposite the Knights of Hell statues and notice something that had completely escaped his notice in the midst of his being distracted by the sight of the statues, he immediately wished that he hadn't. Fighting not to vomit, he said, "Um guys, you'd best not look behind you."
Confused, the Titans did exactly that, and found themselves rearing backwards in shock, horror, and disgust as they to saw what Beast Boy had already been unlucky enough to spot right there in the center of the crypt. Lying right in that area, was a large fountain. However, it wasn't so much the fountain that had drawn out their horrified reactions. Rather, it was the ominous dark red liquid within it that looked very unnervingly like blood.
At the sight of this gruesome fountain, all five Titans found themselves desperately battling against the urge to vomit. Starfire even ended up looking away to her right, her face turning nearly the exact shade of green as Beast Boy's skin. However, when she happened to get a good look at one of the walls as a result, her eyes widened, and her face turned white at the sight of what was engraved on the wall.
"Friends," she stated fearfully, "whatever you do, don't look at the walls."
Unfortunately, her friends did exactly that out of concern for what now appeared to be bothering the poor Tamaranean. And upon sight of the disturbing images engraved on both the wall directly in front of Starfire and behind them, they all took on facial expressions that ranged from absolute horror, to scandalized shock, to downright rage. Carved on the walls in question, in very vivid and at times cruel detail, were vast hordes of demons engaging in all manner of sinful, violent, and just plain unforgivable actions.
Robin found himself clenching his fists and snarling inarticulately at the sight of carvings of demons running their claws, beaks, tails, and even teeth straight through the chests, hearts, and even necks of several humans. Cyborg found himself speechlessly gaping at carvings of demons causing wanton destruction, including a small pack of them laughing as they sent flames spouting from their hands at an already ablaze building that was clearly recognizable as a church. Beast Boy couldn't help but stare in horror with his mouth agape as he found himself unlucky enough to witness the sight of engravings of demons dancing around on corpses, latching onto all manner of animals and ripping them to shreds like paper, and most heartbreaking of all, holding stolen toys high up in the air and cruelly out of reach of sobbing children as they laughed pitilessly. Raven even managed to catch sight of what appeared to be an engraving of a demon positioned so that it was leaning down towards something that it had its left foot placed down firmly atop of as if pinning it down. The only hint within the mural as to what it was the demon was standing over was the fact that it was almost possessively clutching onto what appeared to be a pair of human arms with the hands positioned in a way that conveyed that the person was begging for the demon to let go and not do what it was about to do. While Raven couldn't see any detail about the human apart from the arms, she still had a feeling that she knew all too well what the demon in the mural was about to do, and the thought made her blood boil.
However, it wasn't until the other Titans heard Starfire crying before they finally looked to see the particular detail of the mural that she'd seen, and absolutely no words could have described the horror, sadness, and rage that they felt upon sight of it. The detail that Starfire had managed to catch sight of in the mural in all its despicable and unforgiving glory, was an engraving of two people, a man and a woman, on their knees sobbing at the feet of a demon that was just standing there holding onto the bottom of a wooden stake. But the part that really made this sight emotionally charged was how the pointed end of the stake was jutting right through the back of the skull and straight out the open mouth of a baby while the demon was laughing shamelessly.
For just the briefest of moments, Robin felt angry. But then he was brought back down to Earth by the sound of Starfire's sobbing and weeping. Desperate to calm her down and cheer his girlfriend up, he hugged her and let her lay her head on his shoulder, whispering words of encouragement to her as she sobbed profusely into his shoulder. Cyborg merely shook his head side to side and glared murderously at the engraved demon clutching onto the offending stake as if he wanted to find the artist who'd engraved the mural and beat his face in. Hell, he now didn't even care if the artist happened to be a female. The way he saw it, no one deserved to be allowed to create such unforgivable artwork and get away with it on account of gender. However, at the sound of inhuman snarling coming from the area where Beast Boy and Raven were, he looked at them in time to see that his two chromatically challenged friends were tensed up as if extremely angry, and that Beast Boy himself even had his hands up and positioned as if his fingers were claws. It was clear that the sight of this deplorable carving had put them on the edge of their temper control, and that they were about to flip out right there in the crypt.
Without thinking, the half robot teenager placed a hand on each of the two furious teenagers' shoulders. His two friends snapped their heads around to look at him, and Cyborg found his eyes widening as he saw that Raven's eyes had turned blood red and that Beast Boy's teeth were gritted in a feral snarl that was an exact match of the one he'd seen on the face of the Beast. After a tense few minutes, the two enraged teenagers appeared to visibly calm down and relax, taking deep breaths before they finally took on a more calm and peaceful appearance. When the two chromatically challenged teens opened their eyes, Raven's eyes had reverted back to their natural violet color and Beast Boy's face had lost its animalistic snarl.
After a few minutes, Cyborg asked, "You guys ok?"
Raven nodded her head. "I am now."
"I'm ok," said Beast Boy. "It's just," he looked back at the offending carving, and then said, "that . . . that . . . abomination . . ."
Suddenly taking on a tense posture once again, the green skinned shape shifter turned his head towards Robin and Starfire and said, "Robin."
The boy wonder looked up at Beast Boy, as did Starfire, who still had tears in her eyes. Beast Boy snarled, pointed at the carving that had caused Starfire to feel such sadness, and growled venomously, "I don't care how much more scary or disgusting this place turns out to be. We are going to brave our way through it and get that key. And when we get that key, so help me, I am going to find the nearest volcano and throw the dumb thing into the lava! I don't care if Dante wanted to have a balance in power between the three realms of the afterlife, but a race of beings as psychopathic and shameless as demons do not, and I mean do not, deserve the same luxury that these keys give to the angels and Primordials!" Upon shouting all this, Beast Boy turned his head to face the Knights of Hell statues, and past them at an ominous mass of what appeared to be some sort of strange darkness, and furiously snarled, "Let's get ourselves that key."
Their resolve now strengthened by this newfound desire to strike such a decisive blow against Abrahamic demonkind, the Titans made their way over to the suspicious mass of darkness directly behind the statues of the Knights of Hell. They came to a stop directly before walking into it. This soon turned out to be very wise when Beast Boy reached out towards it, only for it to turn out to feel suspiciously solid like a wall. "Huh," said the changeling. "This is kind of like one of your force fields Rae."
"It's Raven," said Raven. "But that being said, I'll see if I can deactivate it." She placed her fingers to her head as if concentrating, her eyes closed. After a few minutes, she opened her eyes and lowered her fingers. "No luck," she said. "Whoever put this up is far stronger than I am. I can't get it to deactivate."
"Wait a minute," Robin said as he happened to look at the floor area near Beast Boy's feet. "Beast Boy, can you step back for a second?"
Beast Boy complied, and Robin got down on his hands and knees as he proceeded to closely examine what appeared to be some sort of runes engraved on the area where his green friend had originally been standing. "These runes," Robin stated. "They look like they're maybe Hebrew or something. Raven, can you translate these?"
Raven shook her head. "Sorry," she stated. "But Hebrew isn't among the languages I'm fluent in reading."
"It's ok," said Cyborg as he proceeded to look through several functions within his right arm. "I think I've got a translator function somewhere in here." Sure enough, he managed to find it. "Yes, alright, here goes." He held his right arm up to the Hebrew runes, and the translator built into his arm proceeded to scan them. When the results popped up, they were in English within the picture. "Ok then," said Cyborg. "According to my translator, these runes are Hebrew for 'Only the unforgiven may pass'."
Robin growled. "Great," stated the boy wonder. "Of all the defenses, now we need to have a criminal or demon present in order to just get ahold of the stupid thing."
"Actually," said Beast Boy. "It might not be that hard for us to get past that force field."
The other titans looked at Beast Boy, looks of surprise and confusion on their faces. "What do you mean?" Robin asked.
Beast Boy looked at Raven and said, "Raven, remember how you had me read the Lord of the Rings books in exchange for you watching the movies alongside me and the others?"
The empath nodded her head. "Yes," she stated.
"Well remember how in The Fellowship of the Ring, when the fellowship reached the entrance to the Mines of Moria, they had to say the Elvish word for 'friend' in order to enter?"
Raven and the other Titans nodded upon remembering this detail.
"Well this little scenario," Beast Boy said as he pointed at the force field that appeared to be barring their way to obtaining the Infernal Key of Dante, "might require a similar strategy. However, for this case, we have to each state one thing that we have never personally managed to forgive ourselves for."
The other Titans thought to themselves, and then realized that Beast Boy's suggestion actually sounded quite logical. However, there was one other thing that Robin thought worth bringing up in regard to what Beast Boy was suggesting. "Your logic is certainly sound," said Robin. "But are you sure it will work? I mean, we've already forgiven each other for all the stuff we've committed against each other."
"I understand that," Beast Boy responded calmly. "But in this particular case, I don't think whether or not we've forgiven each other or have been forgiven by others is what matters. I'm thinking that the more important factor in this equation is whether or not we've forgiven ourselves for the actions in question."
Robin thought to himself upon hearing this, and then found himself nodding in agreement as he managed to note the logic in Beast Boy's statement. "Well in that case," Robin stated before he then looked at the force field and said, "Which of us wants to go first?"
"I'll go," said Beast Boy. "It is my idea, so I should probably be the first to test it."
The other Titans stepped aside and let their verdant green friend walk straight up towards the force field. When the changeling came to a stop, he took a deep breath, exhaled, and then stared straight at the force field before saying, "The one thing I still haven't yet forgiven myself for . . . is not having been able to rescue my parents."
For what seemed like an eternity, nothing happened. But then, Beast Boy began to glow, and a beam of a mysterious red light sprang out from his chest in the area where his heart was located and pierced the force field. The beam crackled and sparked, but the force field seemed otherwise unaffected.
As Beast Boy remained standing where he was, watching the beam spouting from his heart at the force field, he managed to say, "Well, it seems to be working, but I'm not sure if my confession is enough."
"Perhaps all five of us have to state our actions that we personally as unforgivable in order for us all to pass," said Starfire.
The other Titans standing nearby her looked at each other and considered her suggestion. Then they nodded, looked back at Starfire, and gestured for her to take her turn. "You go on ahead Star," said Robin. "It's certainly worth trying."
Starfire gave a half happy and half nervous smile, and then proceeded to walk up and take a position that was about a couple feet or so to Beast Boy's right. Taking a deep breath, the alien princess closed her eyes, exhaled, clenched her fists, and then opened her eyes to stare directly at the force field. "The one thing that I've truly never stopped regretting," she managed to state with some difficulty before she briefly tensed up, and then with clear effort to prevent tears from bursting from her now once again closed eyes, she managed to tearfully howl, "is not managing to say a proper goodbye to my family before . . . before . . ." she started crying, and then eventually stammered, "before my parents died, my brother vanished to X'hal knows where, and my sister was lost to the darkness of villainy!"
At this point, Starfire completely lost it, and she placed her hands up to her face as she started sobbing and weeping uncontrollably. She was so broken down in her sorrow that she didn't even notice the red glow that came upon the area of her chest where her heart was located and the beam of matching red light that sprang from that area and struck the force field not too far away from the beam that was coming from Beast Boy.
Cyborg, ever the big brother figure, impulsively made his way over to Starfire and placed his hand on her shoulder. Pausing in her weeping, Starfire turned her head to look behind her, tears still welling up in her eyes. At the sight of the look in Cyborg's face that silently said, "It's ok," she sniffled, wiped away her tears, and looked past Cyborg at Raven and Robin, both of whom had solemn looks that silently screamed how truly sorry they felt and that they were there for her. She also managed to see Beast Boy helplessly standing where he was as he directed a look of sympathy towards her. Sniffling, Starfire nodded her head, and turned her head to look back at the force field.
Cyborg, deciding that he'd already more or less volunteered himself to go next, moved up so that he was standing directly to Starfire's right, stared intently at the force field, and solemnly stated, "The one thing that I truly wish I could forgive myself for," before sighing, shaking his head side to side with his eyes closed, and then silently stating, "is my inability to save my mom."
All of two seconds passed after Cyborg said this before a beam of light the exact shade of red as his cybernetic eye burst from the area where his heart was located and pierced the force field. As this happened, the three beams of light seemed to transform and increase in size and intensity to the point that they now more closely resembled crimson bolts of lightning rather than standard red laser beams. The force field, meanwhile, began to show signs of ripples occurring at the areas where the beams were blasting it. But despite how the force field was now definitely being affected by the confessions of the three Titans who'd already admitted to their own personal unforgivable acts, it still needed a little more to go away completely.
Taking a deep breath, Raven stepped forward, coming to a stop at a point in which she'd be standing directly to Beast Boy's right. Preparing herself in much the same way her friends had, she soon proceeded to state, "Out of all the things I've done that can be viewed as unforgivable by anyone in any way, shape, or form, the only one that I truly feel as if I haven't forgiven myself for . . . was not having more faith in my friends when they put in so much effort to try to prevent me from fulfilling my prophecy to become the portal that would allow my father to come to Earth in his demon form."
Her friends had just enough time to gape at her in surprise and respect for a couple seconds before Raven's upper body became briefly encased in red lightning, and a large bolt of the same lightning sprang from the area where her heart was located and speared into the force field. Seconds later, with four bolts of red lightning ramming away at the force field, it started to show signs of what appeared to be cracks appearing in it. Unfortunately, three minutes later, it became clear that the four confessions that had already been made were still not enough to completely eradicate the barrier altogether. Upon realizing this, the four Titans who'd so far confessed turned their heads to look behind them, directly at Robin.
Robin sighed, took a deep breath, and slowly began to march his way over towards the force field. Truth be told, the boy wonder had quite honestly hoped that it wouldn't come down to this. But now, with the confessions of his friends alone not apparently being enough, he now had no choice but to air out his own personal unforgivable actions. Tensing himself up as if preparing himself to just get the whole unpleasant business over with, Robin came to a stop directly between Starfire and Raven, gritted his teeth, exhaled a heavy breath, and proceeded to state, "There is one single thing I still even now find impossible for me to forgive myself over. In fact, this single action, is a result of two combined factors. The first of these elements . . ." He tensed up, almost as if he were having a mental struggle within him, and then eventually stated, "was that I was once willing to practically give up on my friends and truly believe that it wouldn't be worth trying to bring them back to the light if they ever went bad. In fact, it even reached the point . . ."
Robin tensed up yet again, clearly wrestling between the side of him that wanted to keep this earth shaking information he was about to say a secret in order to preserve his friends' feelings and the side of him that wanted to get the weight of it off of his chest. "It even reached the point . . . that . . . that I went so far as to actively research them and create files on them containing information on them, their powers, and how to take them down if they ever turned evil."
At the sound of this the other Titans' eyes widened in shock and horror. Grimacing, Robin hung his head, and eventually continued, "And not only did I do this against my four greatest friends that live with me now, but also for all the other friends of mine that work alongside me in my . . . our work. In other words, I practically turned by back on my friends . . . no . . . on my family."
Robin tensed up, took a deep breath, and exhaled again before continuing, "Granted, I've learned my lesson since then, and I got rid of all the files, but the fact that I even considered having them taken out of the equation without even bothering to try to bring them back from the darkness of villainy, has made me feel so . . . so hateful of myself. But that doesn't even compare to . . . to how . . ."
He tensed up, lifting his head so that it was facing directly upward towards the ceiling, closing his eyes, and even unleashing a pained mix between a snarl and a howl, before then lowering his head back downward again, tensing himself up, and then almost growling, "To how I was so cowardly as to put my duty before my friends and my feelings so many times for so long."
Panting and wheezing heavily, Robin gritted his teeth, and then continued, "I already mentioned how I put my duty before my friends be going so far as to create contingency files on them without even bothering to consider it possible to bring them back to good if they ever turned evil. However, I also went so far as to directly threaten to take them down if they were to even dare to get in my way of my duty . . . no . . . my obsession . . . to take down Slade and bring him to justice. But what's more," he took a deep breath, and proceeded to take part in yet another mental struggle.
After what seemed like an eternity to the other four Titans as they watched their leader seemingly fighting to finish his confession, Robin tensed up, clenched his fists, gritted his teeth, and closed his eyes tight before damn near shouting with bitterness and regret, "I dared to choose my job . . . my duty . . . my conditioned rules before what my heart wanted."
As the Titans continued to watch, their fearless leader took another deep breath, exhaled, and then said, "For such a long time, I tried too hard to keep my emotions and feelings for my friends, and especially for . . . for the one I truly love . . . locked up and repressed. In fact, I went so far as to openly push them . . . push her . . . away and discourage relationships of such . . . such a . . . such a nature as romantic or even remotely more personal than merely professional and strictly between fellow crime fighters and teammates. For so long . . . I . . . I thought . . . truly believed . . . that that was the right thing . . . how it should always be. But . . . when I finally just let it all go . . . and allowed myself to accept how I felt and allowed it the chance to truly become . . . more . . . only then did I realize . . . how wrong I was . . . just what and how much . . . I had . . . missed out on . . . and through both that combined with all the other times I'd dared to choose my duty over . . . over my . . . my . . . friends . . . no . . . my family . . . I . . . I finally realized . . . how . . . how much . . . like . . . like my . . . mentor . . . then I . . . had . . . ever . . . wanted to . . . be like . . . I had . . . had become."
Robin leaned downward, his head firmly directed downwards so that he was facing his feet with his eyes shut tight. Struggling to keep himself together, he finally stated, "And now, having realized how much more like my mentor I became, then I wanted to, only now, do I have the guts to say how ashamed I feel to have allowed myself . . . to go so low . . . and . . . failed my friends . . . my family . . . and most of all . . . myself."
His confession finally finished, Robin dared to look up at the force field once again. Tensing himself up, he said, "And that, is what I have truly never been able to forgive myself for."
For what seemed like an eternity, Robin stared at the force field, his friends stared at him, and the force field remained as it was. But then, Robin suddenly felt an agonizing pain in his chest area where his heart was located, and he had just enough time to let out a pained howl, before he suddenly found himself jerking his upper body backward and roaring in agony as what appeared to be a massive jet of red flames spouted from the area where his heart was located and slammed into the force field. The other Titans found themselves screaming as well as the red lightning bolts coming from out of them transformed into similar jets of flame. And seconds later, as the five teenage heroes continued to howl in pain, the force field appeared to crack even more severely, until finally, with an almighty burst of white light that engulfed the entire area, it ceased to exist.
Eventually, the light faded, and with it the pain and flames. No sooner had all the bright elements and pain vanished when all five of the teenage heroes crumpled to the ground, panting and heaving. Gritting their teeth and grunting with effort, they managed to get back up on their feet and look upward towards where the force field had been. The gigantic mass of darkness was gone, and in the area where it had been, they could see a truly terrifying, yet at the same time awe-inspiring, sight. Right there, on a more or less small island surrounded by a moat of molten lava, was a gigantic statue of a seven headed dragon. Upon closer inspection, this statue turned out to be very similar in appearance to the similar statue they'd seen in the Jump City Brotherhood of Dante headquarters. The only differences, however, were that this statue appeared to have more color than the generic metallic statue in the headquarters, and also had more details in the facial areas.
Each of the seven heads of the coppery red dragon statue was detailed in its own unique way. The head to the far left (from the statue's perspective) was riddled with scars and had an angry snarl on its face. The head to the right of the angry looking head seemed to gleam flawlessly clean and had a jewel studded collar around its throat. The head to the right of the collared head looked half asleep and even had its eyes closed. The head in the very center had a very arrogant and prideful grin on its face. The head to the right of the central head had a very flirtatious and sleazy look on its face. The head to the right of the sleazy faced head had what looked like a jealous glare on its face and was hissing like a snake. Finally, the head on the far right in the statue's perspective had a hungry look on its face and was licking its chops like a standard carnivore. For some reason, the Titans could tell just by looking at the hideous statue that it was of Lucifer himself.
After a few more minutes of just staring at the statue of Lucifer, the Titans' attention was drawn to a different detail when they heard what appeared to be the sound of something opening up. They looked towards the area near the base of the statue in time to see what appeared to be a large crystal dome retracting, revealing a blood red gemstone like object. At the sight of that object, the Titans' eyes widened, and without even thinking, they silently made their way across the small bridge that spanned the lava moat and over to the edge of where the crystallized dome had been. For they could tell just by glancing at the crimson gem that had been contained within the dome, that it was the very thing they had come for, the Infernal Key.
And just like that, the Titans have found the Infernal Key! I really liked writing this chapter, and I hope you all enjoyed reading it, and leave a nice large batch of reviews for all my hard work! And please do review! Even if you're a guest! I NEED my reviews! Sorry, had to put that all in there. Well anyway, again, I hope you enjoyed, and that you leave plenty of reviews to do justice for my hard work!
Coming up next: The Titans have found the Infernal Key, and they make plans on what to do with it. However, as they soon find out, they are not the only ones who have decided to pay a visit to Lucifer's Crypt, and before long, an epic battle unfolds for possession of the key.