°If you kill a man with a gun, do you blame the gun?º
"I loved you brother."
"We caught Sparda and his whore."
"He entrusted both his sons heavily with weapons. The Yamato for Vergil. The Rebellion for Dante."
"I will rip out his beating heart with my bare hands and feast upon it."
"My name is Dante by the way! Has a nice ring it don't ya think?"
"Just like your father. Too big for his fucking boots. Me, a God. Versus you, a piece of shit."
"Useful?"
"I'm not abandoning her."
"We make quite the team."
"Fucking demon collaborators."
"I'm nothing without this brat."
"We'll do it your way."
"We would of failed a thousand times if it weren't for her!"
"Please stop. For me."
"I don't know who I am anymore."
Dante had awokened from a deep sleep, sweat dripping from his chest and forehead. He moved slowly from his bed and strolled to the cramped up space for a bathroom. His eyes went from the medicine bottle on the sink to the permanent white hair he inhabited. It was hard for him to adjust to such a physical transformation. Certain things he enjoyed greatly.
Yet, here he was trying to once again stable his dyfunctional life by draining human drugs. Dante saw himself changing. The mirror reflected a man of pale skin, bags under his eyes, depression and bruises that never healed. He was a mess. Never left his new apartment. Not since...not since the incident.
~•~
"I loved you brother." Vergil used his katana to slice open a portal and rush through it. Dante turned to Kat, eyes filled with pain as all of his hair was lightened to ash white.
"I don't know who I am anymore." He told her honestly.
She took his face into her unharmed hand, moving immediately in front of him. "I know exactly who you are. Your Dante. Nothing more, nothing less."
~•~
"My name is Dante." The devil told himself that time after time again. He wasn't human. Never was. Medication was no longer for his immune system. Not the cold, the virus, infections...nothing.
A repeated bang at his apartment door sounded his hollow sanctuary.
The nephilm hurried to the door as he opened it without hesistation.
"What's up Dante my ma-" Dex. The eyes and ears of Dante's small group. Mostly Limbo. He was rudely interupted with a slam to the face.
"Hey come on! I got some info for ya! Dante!"
Once more, the man opened the door which much of a noticable attitude. "What the fuck is it now Dex?"
"Can I come in at least?-"
"No! Make it quick."
Dex cleared his throat and nodded in response as he opened up his laptop by what seemed to be attached to two large straps and hooked around his neck. "Someone gained access to to Raptor's New Networking Tower. I tried hacking into the main data's records but it was blocked off by a security firewall. It threated to crash my servers and leave me with blue screen longer then BattleStar Galatic."
"Fucking nerd. Why don't you curve the main security?" Dante knew a little something from working with his computer genius of a brother. "That way your not going in directly and coming out unsuccessful."
Dex shook his head, fixing his snowboarding goggles that hung from his forehead. "I'll have to decipher every security code in Limbo just to finally get passed that one. It might take about two to three weeks."
"Then you better hop to it." Dante then shut the door in Dex's face but was stopped briefly. "Move."
"Kat is worried about you."
"Let me guess your next sentence. So are you."
"Come on Dante you can't leave us in the dark forever."
A heavy sigh released from the man as he rubbed the sides of his forehead in clear frustration. "Move."
"We need you. So does the people of Limbo City. They need to know their city is under protection."
"I can't protect them. Not anymore." Dante saw in Dex eyes that he was stunned to hear that. "If you don't move...you'll lose that foot."
Dex continued to stare that the once infamous hero before he stepped back. "As you wish." It was wihin that moment he finally realized it was time to give up the loner life for good. His eyes averted to his friend before they disappeared behind the door.
"He's right." Hands came around Dante's chest and smooth out his still perfectly shaped abs. "They need ya. Out there. In the cold. They need to know there's someone who can protect them."
Dante's head turned sideways to glance at the purple pigtailed girl. She was somewhere around 18. Maybe 19. Occasionally dressed like a rebel school girl. Heavy makeup. Usually it changes on certain occasions. Along with her choice of spray painted hair. Primatica. But he called her Mati. A nickname for all of her colorful ways. And personalities.
~•~
"Whaddya have sweet cakes?" Mati, the all-magenta color freak, asked as she popped bubble gum back into her mouth. Her fingers came up to make little twists in her hair.
"I'll just have a ginger tea." Dex told the waitress. He once wore a black jean jacket and a backpack carrying all sorts of equipment with him. At one point he never left his house without his custom made skateboard.
Two months after Limbo's meltdown, Dante escaped from the city and traveled to an island, Fortuna. Dex saved him after being ambushed by a mob of citizens. They too witnessed his acts of terrorism. In fact the whole world did. Since then Dante owe the boy his 'Thanks'.
"Vodka and a sprite." Dante requesting as his gave her a flirtatious smirk.
Coming right up." Mati rolled away on her roller skates back to the glow in the dark bar.
Dex stared at Dante for a moment before shaking his head back amd forth. "Jealously gets you no where my friend."
"I'm not jealous! Its just...everywhere we go you always get the girl."
"What about Cordelia?"
"I'm still half a virgin."
Dante sat up on the leather lounge chair as he turned to face the boy. "I do what I do because I enjoy it. You do what you do why?" Dante never allowed Dex to finish that. "Because you enjoy it."
"I wanna enjoy sex too." He complained.
"That's not how the rules go." The nephilm said.
"There's rules now?!"
Mati returned holding a circular tray in her palm as she knelt down to serve the beverages. "There you are boys."
"Do you think I can get girls miss?" Dex asked the colorful waitress.
She giggled and touched two fingers to her mouth. "Maybe. I think sum girls find smart guys attractive."
"What kind of guys do you find attractive?"
"Nephilms." The girl shot at Dante with a. 45 glock but missed by an inch to his skull. The man flipped over the table separating Dex and him from Mati. She easily cartwheeled out of the way as she shot at him once more.
"Stay down!" Dante ordered to the young boy as he brushed passed screaming clubbers. It was easy for the waitress to disquised herself within the crowd. As techno music roared throughout the larger glass interior night club, this pale-haired man had trouble concentrating.
"Coming out ta play?" Mati strutted in now high royal blue pumps. Within seconds of being the full blown Magenta color, she was now stylish royal blue. "I know ya want ta. Ya just couldn't take your eyes of meh. I don't care. I like em rough."
"My kind of girl."