I don't own 'em, I'm just borrowin 'em.

For any serial AnonymousBystander readers, upon reading this, you may be struck with deja vu.

So to answer any questions, Yes this is the story that is being "written" in "I hate it when you two fight". Though somewhat... finished.

Abdiel's redemption draws a lot on the story of John Milton's "Paradise Lost". It uses the events that are alluded to in the beginning of the first book; (Cue: Very condensed summary)

In Heaven, Saetan was created by God; he was God's right hand, overcome with a lust for God's power. When God the Son was created (To be known as Jesus on Earth) Saetan's jealousy peaked. Then in Heaven, Saetan managed to do something that, until then, God the Father could only do; create life. From his head, fully formed, sprung his beautiful daughter - Sin.

Saetan roused an army of angels and together they staged a revolution against God the Father. In the battle was the Archangel Michael, God's warrior and God the Son. It was God the Son that sent the rebelling angels to Hell.

Once in Hell, Saetan began planning his revenge, during that time having a son by his daughter Sin; Death. During his fathers absence to the garden of Eden, Death raped his mother/sister, giving birth to the hellhounds that guarded the gates of Hell with her.

Ouch.

I'm sorry if this is an extremely brief version of Milton's construction of events about the angels fall, but it's very complicated. Upon reading the story, I immediately felt a deep sympathy for Sin. After all, she was thrown into an Unholy battle that she didn't ask for, she had a son by her father, and was then raped by her son. Then, she seemingly disappears from the whole story.

How unfair!

So I decided to use her as a basis for my story, chuck in a few demonic zombies for good measure, and get Dante to solidly kick Deaths' incestuous arse, giving him the death that I felt he deserved.

God, I love what I do.

I also changed around things a bit, making Sin the lover of Belial - one of the demons ruling under Saetan, also twisting the story to reveal her as the Archangel Abdiel. Who, according to "Paradise Lost" was taken with the urge to go against God's wishes, however at the last minute remaining loyal to God. In my version, to put it simply, she doesn't - she chooses to follow her lover Belial to Hell.

Besides, Abdiel is such a girls' name!

Dante shuddered as a small stream of water trickled down his back. Why had it not crossed his mind to buy a building with a verandah? Even from the street, Devil May Cry looked cold, dark and uninviting.

Why was it that creepy-crawlies chose cold, wet and moonless nights to stalk around the city? Particularly a certain breed of blood-fetished puppets that shall remain nameless...

"Marris..." He growled, "Why is it always the Marris?"

Despite numb fingers and wringing wet clothes, Dante pushed his key into the lock of DMC. Pushing the door open, he was greeted with the scent of home - old dishes and dust. He shut the door firmly behind him and dropped his bag of ammo next to the doormat.

He walked through to the the part of the building where he actually lived, shedding clothes like a snake shedding skin. He kicked off his boots into the living room. (Of course, being full of water, the spray went everywhere.) He really had to clean this place up sometime. It was starting to look like... well... a tip. He shrugged to himself - his large red coat slid off his broad shoulders and he caught it as it slid down his arms, flopping it on the banister of the stairs to dry. He trudged up the stairs; cold, wet and irritated, but feeling lighter.

He was momentarily surprised when he saw the black cat sitting on the top of the stairway. Momentarily. He continued his trudge up the stairs; this cat had been mysteriously appearing in DMC for the past two months or so and nothing bad had happened so far. He'd figured it must have been a stray or something... either that or it liked his piles of mess.

"Fine." He muttered as he stepped over it, "Stay. I'm not going to break anything else throwing it at you. Shed all you want, but I'm going to bed."

It looked up at him with huge green lamp-like eyes and blinked.

"Merrow?"

Stopping Dante kicked it lightly out of the way,

"Now buzz off before I change my mind."

It jumped nimbly on the banister and started walking gracefully down the stairs, where it landed gently on its feet. Both Dante and the cat, freakishly at the same moment, stretched and yawned, then the cat curled up on the worn couch and closed it's eyes.

Dante could feel his muscles stiffening as he took off his shoulder holster and let it clunk to the floor of his bedroom. He was definately going to hurt tomorrow. He saw his bed blissfully unmade and comfortable, and he let himself fall like a drunk onto the mattress. The moment his head hit the pillow, the phone rang.

"Shit." Rubbing his eyes, he rolled onto his stomach and picked up the phone, "Devil May Cry - we're closed."

"Hey Dent." Dante flinched. There was only one person who'd dare to call him that...

"Trish. What lovely surprise." He hoped he counded cheerful, but it was hard to sound like you enjoyed reality when you were half-dead with lethargy.

"I have a little surprise for you."

Dante groaned,

"Not now Trish."

The woman on the other end of the phone sighed,

"No, not that sort of surprise. I have a body."

Silence.

"And?"

There was silence.

"A dead body." She emphasised 'dead'. Usually when she did that...

"You want me to check it out." It was more a statement than a question. Ever since he'd broken up with Trish, she'd tried to find as many excuses as possible for them to 'meet'. For being so cute, she was damn clingy!

"Trish." Dante sighed and rolled onto his back, "Trish, Trish, Trish. I've just come back from a-"

"Look Dante, I frankly don't give a fuck, but I have a body here and..." She paused, "It's outta my league." She finally admitted.

Dante thought for a moment, his body savoring the precious rest that it was getting and knowing that it would probably be the last it would get for a while. He rubbed his eyes again,

"Describe it to me."

Trish took a breath.

"Um... it was a man."

"Was?"

"Was. Arms 2 and 10 O'clock, legs 12 and 3-"

"What? How-"

"Head 7 O'clock-"

"Wait a minute. What the hell are you talking about?" Dante leant on one elbow on the mattress, fully alert now.

"He was ripped apart Dante, and from the look on his face... he was enjoying it."

Dante plonked back down on the pillows and groaned again,

"Ok. You win. I'll come down."

"Oh, and we have a witness."

"A wit-... Jesus." Dante rolled off the bed and picked up his shoulder holster, "Give me ten minutes."

Walking down the stairs, he picked up the damp clothes that he'd discarded earlier.

"I hate Mondays." He noticed that the cat was gone. Apparently it had decided to make it a short stay and left. Dante grumbled to himself as he slammed the door shut behind him,

"I hate every day."

He hadn't needed directions; the small sense of direction in his head told him where Trish was - after all, she was a Demon, and he had a talent for finding Demons. Trish was... he'd like to say unique, but only in personality. She'd been created in the image of his mother - which was deeply disturbing since he'd been sharing a bed with her on a regular basis for a period of six months. However, that had turned out to be nothing. Once the big danger to their lives was gone, he'd finally realised just how irritating she could be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 5 weeks a month, 12 months...

You get the picture.

He shuddered as he turned down an alleyway, then suddenly had to screech to a stop before he ran over someone. Turning the bike 90 degrees whilst braking, he shook the mist out of his head,

"Sorry Trish."

The redhead 'humph'-ed but didn't say anything other than,

"You want your body?" She jerked her head towards a pile of clothes, "There's your body. I'm outta here." She started walking towards her car. Dante frowned,

"But... the witness?"

"Just screwin' with ya." She smirked and climbed into the car. Dante could have happily throttled that little bitch, but restrained himself from chasing her down. She'd probably take it as a come-on. He instread tried to concentrate on the dead body lying on the slightly steaming cement.

Put bluntly, and graphically, he had been torn apart. Limbs were all strewn akimbo and had shreds of tissue still hanging from them. The man had been in his late 30's, roughly, but did seem to have a look of ecstacy on his face; the bulge in the legless trousers confirmed the look.

So what he was dealing with was a very twisted Demon that like ripping apart her suitors whilst jerking them off. Either twisted or... original. Dante noticed the security badge on the man's arm and it suddenly clicked that he must have been guarding something. Something of extreme importance to the Demon if she had gone to this length to eliminate any witnesses.

He sighed and crounched next to the guy. He was assuming that the offending Demon was a 'She'. There were very few Homosexual Demons out there, and thankfully he hadn't met any, though he had read about particular individuals...

He shivered and looked around for any sign of a key or something that would give a clue as to what he'd been guarding. The wet pavement was streaked with blood and rain. A small way from the mans... largest portion of body, was something small and... furry?

"A feather." Dante groaned. He has Limb-ala-security guard and a feather to work off. Next time he saw Trish, he'd kill her. No ifs, no buts. Truly.

He ran a hand through his hair and stood up, thinking to himself. It may have simply been a random attack; a security guard on the way home from a mall, sees a woman offering her 'services', presumes she's a prostitute and goes off alone with her then BAM. Phallocentric Sushi.

Nah. Too simple.

The alleyway looked like something out of a comicbook. With the stereotypical dumpster, newspapers trapped against the barbed wire fence, cardboard boxes lining the brick walls to the high buildings and garbage bins overflowing onto the street. For no particular reason at all, Dante noticed the name on the boxes;

Karat Jewellers.

He grinned. Bingo.

It was incredibly dark inside. Not that it mattered, he could see as well as if there was a private sun standing in the corner. However, there was no private sun standing in the corner... there was only a woman half-heartedly inspecting the display cases. Judging from the vibes he was getting off her... she was so a Demon.

"Good evening. How can I serve you? Lead or silver?" Dante loaded his guns loudly, the clicks rang through the silent shop..

The woman looked up, strangely ageless in appearence, but beautiful. Unhumanely beautiful. How many mortal women had skin the colour of charcoal? She blinked her huge red-wine eyes and smiled, her teeth were pearly-white against her pitch-black skin.

"Ah. Thank God you're here. I think there's a man outside who needs your help."

"I think the only person who can help him now is a steamstress." Dante felt himself tense, ready to fight. Something had told him that he'd just found the artist who'd decided to make an artwork of the security guard's limbs outside. She sighed dramatically,

"I know, isn't it just terrible the sacrifices that one must make to fulfill one's duty?" She stepped forward, "Like me for instance." The light from the security lighting on the shop lit up something large behind her. Dante felt his stomach sink when he saw the smoke gracefully twirling around her.

"Not on a Monday." He groaned.

Slowly, the smoke took form and blew backwards in the breeze, revealing two enormous black feathered wings. They were shredded in places and feathers hung off the bottom feebly. The angel laughed and spread her wings, the light behind her shining through the holes in the feathers.

"I would have come yesterday, but it was the Sabbath." She laughed again, a ringing sound. Obviously she found her religious jokes funny.

"You should be careful. Blasphemy will send you to hell..." He shrugged, "Too late I guess." He fired both his guns simulatiously as she pounced like a panther. She stumbled for a moment, then the bullets fell to the ground with a small "Chink! Chink!". She smiled and raked her claws across the concrete wall. The wall was sheared like a hot knife through butter.

"You're going to have to try better than that, half-breed."

Darting to the side, she leapt off a wall clawing him across the back. He rolled away, pausing only for a moment. When he next darted around a display case, the gourges were healed. From behind the corner of a wall, the disgraced angel raised an eyebrow,

"Impressive." Dante heard the distinct sound of guns being drawn, "Fine. We'll do it your way."

What Dante couldn't understand was why exactly she was here. It wasn't very Demon-like to turn to petty thievery, nor was it Demon-like to simply attack him for no particular reason at all. Really, his reputation only went so far. Then again... she wasn't just a Demon.

The woman kicked a chair into the air, and it spun dangerously close to the case he was hiding behind. Suddenly, she ran across the wall... horizontally, leapt off and sent the chair - still spinning through the air - in his direction. Lightning-fast, he kicked it back though she momentarily blurred and dodged out of the way. As the chair smashed into pieces on the concrete wall, she looked down from the ceiling and grinned;

"Gravity... who needs it?"

They both leapt at each other again, clashing in the air. Dante hit the floor on his back, flipping up almost instantaniously. The woman landed on her hands and backflipped onto the wall, crounching there like some kind of spider.

"You have to have something better than that." Dante straightened for his regular taunting spiel, holstering the guns and drawing Force Edge, "I kill spiders that can do better than that."

"Oh really?" She reached a hand for a display case, "Can they do this?" The hundreds of tiny diamonds flew through the glass, crumbling it and ricocheted off the walls heading straight for our platinum-haired hero. With one solid sweep, he sent them back to her like a baseball player sends a baseball to the outfield. This startled her and they impacted, studding her black skin like stars in the night sky. She fell from the wall with a cry.

"I always thought diamonds were a girl's best friend." Dante said drily. Narrowing her eyes at him standing over her with Force Edge, she hissed,

"That. Wasn't. Fair."

"People in glass houses shouldn't throw diamonds."

With a snarl, she kicked out a heeled boot at him, which he swept to the side with his coat. She twisted her foot in the red leather and swept his feet from under him and he hit the ground, losing Force Edge in the process. Simultaniously they re-drew their guns, both pointed at the other.

"Go on." She dared him, "You first."

"No. I insist. Ladies first."

Neither of them moved, like a pair of black and red statues frozen in place.

"There's just one thing I'd like to know." Dante spoke, arms unmoving.

"Mmmm?"

"Are you going to jerk me off before you kill me?"

"Oh no. The guard? He was unintended. I simply meant to get your attention, cause a bit of panic. But, unfortunately, he forced my hand."

"Is that literal?"

"You see, Son of Sparda, I don't take to trying to be raped very well." She smiled devilishly. It was that smile that made it hard for Dante to decide whether she was telling the truth or not. The situation took a nasty turn. If she' had killed the man in self-defense... that meant that he didn't have justification for killing her.

Oh well.

"You know, for being so damn twisted, I'm surprised that you haven't bragged about who you are, yet."

"Abdiel."

"Abdiel? The angel that-"

"Turned from God's light, then at the last moment stood up to Saetan - returning therefore to God's right hand?" She finished sarcastically. "The bible is bullshit. I happily fought that oversized pompous light bulb. Though I have to admit that God the Son was kind of cute... " She sighed, "I'm flattered that they'd try and uphold my name. Though I did get a little fun from getting that imbecile Kane to kill his brother."

"Then why are you here? Don't you have your own little Pandemonium to get to?" Dante's arms were starting to stiffen up.

"I'd love to go back home, but first, I have some unfinished business."

"And what would that be?"

"Killing you!" She kicked out suddenly, but he was ready for it; catching her leg and twisting it. She flipped onto her stomach, winded and he forced a knee into her back, gripping both of her wings hard. Her guns clattered out of reach.

He wings were strangely bony underneath the downy feathers. Abdiel smiled maliciously,

"Go on, Demon-slayer. Tear them out. Break them in your hands. Watch the bone glisten in the night and listen to the music of my screams... it's only Demon after all."

"Demons were once Angels, Abdiel. You're one of the first, in case you forgot."

In an amazing show of flexibility, she twisted her legs out from under him and swiped a heel across his head, rolling and pinning him.

"Thankyou for the reminder, Half-breed."

Dante noticed the pale silver tattooed marks either side of her eyes. Likewise on her shoulders and arms. She noticed him examining them.

"The marks of an angel." Abdiel said, voice full of poison, "Reversed. Our ivory skin turned ebony and our ebony marks turned ivory." She smiled, "Ironic, don't you think?"

With a surge of strength, Dante managed to throw her off him. She flipped, kicking the wall and fastening her hand around his throat.

"Nice try, half-blood."

"Why are you trying to kill me?" He hissed, vision going fuzzy.

"Because you killed Belial." She spat.

"What the hell are you talking about? I don't even know who Belial is, let alone kill him. Usually, I find out names before I fight someone... then I kill them."

"Lies! I saw you in Hell!"

"I haven't been to Hell for over two years."

"Prove it." She spat.

"Look at my wrist. No recent scars. To get to the inner circle requires a blood sacrifice." He twisted his fingers into her hand. Abdiel saw the unscarred flesh, then dropped him like a hot coal,

"But... but I saw you. I swear it was you... I was never so certain of anything in my life." She let him slide to his feet.

"Well, obviously you were mistaken." Dante massaged his neck painfully, thinking. How could it have been him? He had no memory of being to hell lately. In fact, he'd only been to hell twice, once with Trish and once after the whole episode with Lucia. He'd had to fight his brother-

His brother.

"Nero." He growled. Claws sprang from the disgraced angel's hands. She was still on a hair-trigger from the fight...

...if you assumed that the fight was over.

"What?" Abdiel eyed him distrustfully, tapping her very sharp claws on a glass case. Dante stood up, Abdiel flexed her claws. She was obviously expecting him to attack her.

"I have a brother."

"Who looks exactly like you? How convenient." She drawled.

"Nero Angelo."

Dante saw the recognition dawn in her eyes.

"He's... your brother?" She looked less than impressed. Dante gritted his teeth, "He worked for Mundus... at least he did. Then I killed Mundus. If," He looked across at Abdiel, "and I stress if my brother has somehow been resurrected. I need to know why he killed Belial... and what this has to do with me." He looked at Abdiel with a penetrating glare, his eyes demanding her to explain. He'd been framed for a murder he hadn't committed, and now he was stuck on the bad side of a Fallen Angel who'd watched Humans fall from grace, and encouraged Kane to kill Abel. She was fucking powerful, and it scared the shit out of him.

Not that he'd ever, ever show it... or admit it.

"Belial..." Abdiel began, "Belial was about to become the next Keeper of the Gates."

"Of Hell?"

"Of the Seventh Circle. Pandemonium." She was slowly relaxing, muscle by muscle, but still relaxing. Though Dante could tell that she still didn't trust him. She continued, "Mundus was a Demon of no importance, so he was allowed to rule the outermost Circle, the First. Saetan ruled Circles 2 through 7... but, he was old and has long since faded."

"Wait a minute, you're telling me Saetan has... died?"

"Faded." Abdiel said sharply, "We all will. He is the first because he was first created by God. Beelzebub will be next, then Belial would have faded... then me."

Well, she was older than he'd expected, and even that had been pretty old. What was strange though, was that she didn't look like an ancient. He'd fought the ancient Mammon before - and had his arse appropriately kicked - but she didn't... feel the same. Almost like...

Nah.

Abdiel continued, "Before he faded, he gave rule of Pandemonium to Beelzebub - who had previously been the Keeper of the Seventh Gate. Directly below him, was Belial."

"So he was in for a promotion."

"Simply put, yes... but now that he is dead..." Abdiel trailed off. Lost in thought.

Dante snapped his fingers to catch her attention. She jerked, claws springing out of her hands again.

"Relax, and tell me why this would change anything."

"Because now, Son of Sparda, I am the Keeper of the Seventh Gate... and I am not as powerful as Mundus."

Dante smiled to himself,

"That's no problem. He's dead. I should know - I killed him." Abdiel returned the smile gravely,

"Is that so? Then I guess it must have been someone else who I fought at the Gate... but, gosh, he looked similar." She finished sarcastically.

"You're obviously an Ancient. So shouldn't you be able to destroy him easily?"

Abdiel darkened,

"Let's just say that the Pompous Light Bulb didn't exactly dish out power as evenly as he did life. The bible says it all; 'I am a jealous God'." She shrugged, "Though I can't remember where he said that. He wasn't happy when I was born."

"Why?"

"Because Saetan, his right-hand man, had managed to create life."

"You're Sin?"

"In the flesh... though somewhat older."

"And how old would that be?"

She paused. Calculating.

"Ten thousand, three hundred and eighty-five."

There was silence.

"Give or take a century or so?" Dante asked ironically.

"You should never tease a woman about her age."

"A Fallen One is not a woman."

She darkened slightly, but took a breath and ignored the comment. There was silence.

"So now what?" She asked him, "Are you going stop your brother?"

"Are you asking me for help?" Dante raised an eyebrow, amused. Sin gritted her teeth,

"Whatever your brother is doing... it can't be good. Don't you feel the least bit responsible to stop him?"

"And help a Demon?"

"A Fallen Angel, actually."

"Help a disgraced Angel?"

"No. Stop your brother."

"Help a Demon stop my brother?"

"Stop your brother... and I help you... and I'm a Fallen Angel, not a Demon."

Dante thought for a moment. He still couldn't get over the fact that a Demon was asking him for help, no matter how many ways you tried to say it. He looked around; they'd trashed the shop, though he had a sneaking suspicion that she'd disabled the alarm before she'd come in. How many Demons would be careless enough to be caught by mortal Police?

Sin was obviously rushed. She was starting to get restless. Had she disabled the alarms?

"I'd appreciate an answer now, Son of Sparda. Not in another ten thousand years time."

"You disabled the alarms, right?"

"Of course! I'm evil, not an idiot." She sneered. Grinding his teeth, his mind went back to the jobs at DMC; there were none... yet. Though they had an annoying habit of appearing whenever he was out on something long and important. If he had a dollar for every job he turned down because he had been on Mallet Island...

Groaning, he put a hand over his eyes. There was no way he was going to get any sleep for the next week, was there?

"Just open the God-damned portal. The sooner this is over, the sooner I can sleep."

"Well, since you asked so nicely..." Sin waved her arms and a giant red inverted pentagram formed over her heart and expanded, moving away from her. When it reached about a 2 meter diameter, it flashed and Dante saw flashes of the scenery of Hell on the other side.

Sin grinned,

"Ground floor; barbeques, damned souls and the Sixth Circle. Alight here for the Hell Gates, Pandemonium and Beelzebub."