Disclaimer: The characters within are the property of Capcom.
Edited 08/08/2015
I decided to come back and revise this chapter and see where changes needed to be made and also to see where I can take it from here.
There was a pain in Kat's left arm - a throbbing deep in the bone that had nothing to do with the pistol she was shooting. The sensation didn't affect her but she knew the reason for the feeling; the weather was about to turn.
Ever since her humerus bone (amongst other things) had been broken beneath Mundus' torturing hands, it had become sensitive to any atmospheric changes. A regular reminder of what she had gone through. An invisible scar to carry.
"Kat! Now!" Dante yelled from a distance.
Kat had been filling the Harpies with lead, trying to shred their wings and bring them to the ground. She had never been a proficient shooter and she doubted she ever would be, but she had asked Dante to give her a few tips, and he had been happy to help her out. In the Order she had been utilised well by preparing spells and assisting the organisation with any ad hoc requests. It was never required of her to fight. Of course, everything changed, and now Kat didn't want to be a burden on Dante while they worked together.
As much as she hated the word, she did want to be...useful. Such a simple adjective, however it always left a bad taste in her mouth now. The reason for that was struggling under Dante's sword.
"Vergil," Kat said under her breath, her old boots kicking up blood as she came skidding to a halt next to them. A power play was underway with Dante struggling to keep his injured sibling under him. Vergil's eyes were glowing red, his devil trigger throwing off a fierce blue aura. His dark leather coat was frayed at the edges.
"Hurry, Kat, use it!" Dante urged, baring his teeth at his brother, veins crawling along his neck and cheeks as he himself used his power to subdue Vergil.
For a moment Kat was stunned, her stomach aching painfully at the memory of Vergil stripping back their entire partnership and friendship and simply boiling it down to: "Kat was useful."
Shaking out of it, she slung her backpack off her shoulders and onto the ground, ripping the material open and pulling out an item she had made herself for this specific occasion.
A pair of old handcuffs, retrofitted with Wiccan spells and engravings. Upgraded for a single purpose - to suppress supernatural and physical powers. Her sweat and blood had gone into this little beauty, and it was by far her greatest achievement yet. It was the product of months of research and meticulous work.
Whilst Dante wrestled a growling Vergil to his side, Kat lay down and yanked the Nephilim's hands back. Vergil struggled and thrashed, but between Dante pushing and Kat pulling, he couldn't gain the ground he had lost. When the locks on the old fashioned shackles clicked into place around his wriggling wrists, the seal activated and shone brightly before fading away where it would continue to work invisibly.
Kat was reminded of the time she had destroyed the demon that had paraded as her foster father. The disgusting fuck had been lured into a seal that had been drawn and hidden under a rug. Said seal blew him into chunks all over the living room the second he had stepped over it. This was cathartic in exactly the same way. This man next to her had turned an abused and fragile teenager into a mere tool, making her feel like she had a home and was wanted when it was all a lie.
She yanked the chains back.
"These cuffs are useful, huh Dante?" Kat stated over Vergil's shoulder, right near his ear. Demonic eyes flicked sideways to stare at her harshly. She got up and walked away then, needing to calm down, or redirect her energy. She decided to fire her pistol at the last of the demons that swarmed above them, the ranks of Vergil's unnatural army now wavering due to the turn of events.
"Sure are, babe," she heard Dante coo to his brother, no doubt trying to rile his brother and find a little solace in revenge himself.
"Release me!" Vergil spat, the red in his eyes dying down as the spell awoke, being replaced by a glacial and steely blue.
"Guess all that demonic power didn't help you, huh?" Dante said, his voice a little sad as he hefted his brother over his shoulders.
It started to rain heavily as Kat and Dante left the battlefield. Vergil's protests died out under the sound on pounding raindrops as the seal on the handcuffs weakened him further.
Since the Hellgate had disappeared and Limbo had merged with the world, Kat and Dante had been kept ridiculously busy trying to quell the demon numbers. They were currently squatting in an old police station that was on the edge of the city. Oddly enough it seemed like time and disuse had damaged the building and not the supernatural beings that had arrived. The ground and upper floors had collapsed, leaving only a concealed stairway which lead to the cells in the basement. Behind an inch thick iron door were concrete walls, floors and ceiling. Barred doors, rusted and creaky from disuse, marked each cell along one wall. Off in one corner was a communal shower which was open to the elements, and the other corner had a desk and chair, where a person could have full view of the cells.
She and Dante made modifications with scavenged items to the place more livable; the showers were blocked off by two medical curtain screens on wheels that could easily be moved around. There was an old leather sofa that had it's legs removed before it could fit through the door. There was also a small improvised kitchen area set up in one of the cells, complete with a gas cannister and camping stove.
Dante took Vergil into one of the cells, the formers angry, laboured breathing echoing in their sparse living space. The bound twin was deposited on a metal chair, his shackled hands settled behind the back of him uncomfortably. Dante took further precautions, wrapping rope and duct tape on his brothers waist and wrists to ensure there were no escape attempts.
Kat appeared quietly at the cell door as Dante sighed and sat on the hard bed that was set against one wall.
"What made you do this, Verg?" Dante questioned, starring deep into his brother's cold eyes as he rested elbows on knees. "Leading the demons against humans? Weren't you going to protect them?"
Kat noted that Vergil's fair hair had fell in his face, no longer slicked back. It made him look identical to Dante, whose shaggy outgrown hair now only had one tuft of black at the back. It made her feel uncomfortable, like their appearances should have been as different to each other as their personalities were.
"I thought you were protecting them?" Vergil mocked weakly, his head falling back with the motion.
"You'd endanger the people you said you'd protect because you had some spat with your bro?" Dante scowled, looking away from the other man in frustration.
"I don't have a brother," Vergil replied coolly, for a moment testing the bonds on his wrists with force. The attempt was unsuccessful – the shackles clinked pathetically as they weakened him physically. He felt less than a human...
"Let's leave him, Dante," Kat said softly, just as she knew things were about to get heated. Her voice seemed to cut the tension. Dante looked at his brother for a long moment, before he shrugged and got up. "He can't harm anyone anymore," the Wiccan assured him. As Dante left the cell, she moved out of his way and touched his shoulder fondly as he passed.
Looking back to Vergil, she found he was starring at her intently, eyes piercing hers. She might have felt uncomfortable in other circumstances, but in his confined state she felt at ease.
"I don't even want to imagine how your mother would feel if she found out what you had become," Kat said solemnly before turning around and leaving him alone.
Vergil was momentarily tempted to rebuff her accusation, and state that he had in fact witnessed his mother's realisation of the demon he had become in a different dimension. He wanted to tell her he cared very little. However his reaction would only make her assume that he cared, and he refused to prove anything of the sort.
He knew in hindsight he had been manipulated by a demon when he returned to his childhood home after defeating Mundus and barely escaping Dante's wrath alive. At that point he had been vulnerable, and the doppelganger had played on his carefully concealed feelings; his fondness of Kat, his jealousy of Dante and his selfish love for his mother.
In the spectral plane, when he had slain the apparition of Kat after an outburst of anger, he felt his heart become a little numb, his wounds not as painful. It felt like he was healing.
When he had murdered the apparition of Dante, he was barely able to feel anything at all. It was such sweet relief.
When he had presented his mother with his new self, he felt his heart disconnect completely after watching her grieve over his brother and wonder at the monster her second son had become.
And finally, before the demon could truly take a hold of him, Vergil slew it as well to obtain the power the creature held.
He had felt without burden, free of feelings. He had thought himself more powerful, ready to take what he thought rightfully his - the world.
A sliver of guilt was felt just then at his recollections, but Vergil mentally checked himself. He did not want to feel anything ever again. Not after all that had happened.