Mission 1: Home Is Where the Devil Is

{A/N} So this takes place after Devil May Cry 3 and 1 and about a year before the start of the anime when he changes "Devil Never Cry" back to "Devil May Cry" for a second time. This is the story of how it came about. So Lady doesn't know who Trish is yet, and Trish just left "Devil Never Cry" to go solo. It's canonical that Lady first met Trish in episode 4 of the anime. I'd imagine Trish worked with Dante for about 1 year or 2….since Lady would have known about Trish if it were longer. And if Lady went abroad for a while, I don't think it'd be for very long either. SO, my headcanon is Trish worked with Dante for two years, and Lady was out of his life for those same two years. When Trish left, Lady came back. They never met.

I'm sure DantexLady fans will enjoy, but don't expect pure fluff between them…I tried to keep it canonical to the events of the games and anime…where they started giving each other somewhat of a cold shoulder. BUT, there are subtle implications of their complicated romance all over the place! Well, you'll see.

Disclaimer: I do not own Devil May Cry or anything related to this franchise, because if I did, I would have found some way to sneak even more delicately implied scenes with Dante and Lady's romantic relationship somewhere along the line. It all goes to Capcom.

Mission 1: Home is Where the Devil Is

The woman steadied her futile, rushed gait on the concreted boulevard. By the time she got off the express train, the sun creeping to dominate the gentle, pardoning sky, the brunette soon realized with an exasperated huff, that any hope of arriving at Devil May Cry before 3 p.m. was preposterous. Fashionably late became an unintended specialty of hers…

Besides, it wasn't as if he was expecting her to stop by at all anyway. At first, she wanted to place a "professional" call to the ill-reputed devil hunting agency on the nearby payphone, but then thought better of the idea; as the element of surprise may work in her favor in seeing the man. It'd been quite a time since they'd remained in contact…

And other than that guy, she sadly had no one else to visit in Capulet City. What did it matter if she arrived later than she planned?

Occasionally, an ordinary citizen was passed as well as tall structures that still felt so familiar in spite of these passing years. The leather strap of the cloth concealed weapon slung over one shoulder was regularly adjusted. Thus, it wouldn't ache from the heavy pressure niggling away at her sore collarbone. Even so, never did a complaint arise about walking the rest of the distance from the train station…or carrying this constant burden, this constant reminder. He would never complain either, about his own weight he would forever bear upon his back. "Wonder how he's been doing, working alone these last years…" the dark haired girl murmured aloud, envisioning the same white haired friend she planned to visit this day.

Morning ceased to be. A good breakfast had eluded her altogether…as was recalled in aversion over the locomotives' revolting slop the servers called food. The noontime sun nearly besieged the blue firmament. Clouds endeavored to cover the light, the slight fragmented rays barely making it through, but the white cover was again cast aside as the day progressed. The bright, intolerable glare burned her contradicting retinas, as if she was some form of a vampire; squinting, peering behind a hand, avoiding the sun as much as possible. Really, she was only tired. Exhausted, actually.

But this "vampiric" behavior this woman held… was also keeping in mind that odd nightly schedule she'd taken a recent fondness to. It coincided well with what she hunted.

Even so, the strange, unusual woman with the oddly concealed construct attached to her back, didn't hunt things as mundane as humans long after the cathedral's midnight bell tolled. And she was well aware that monsters like "corny" vampires didn't exist…

No…not that kind of monster anyway.

By the way, the huntress still had that extra side job to attend to…

It couldn't be helped. She'd just have to arrive late after all.

The traveler possessing the chin length black locks swerved a sharp right; turning away from the comfort of the sunny bathed sidewalks and cut instead, into a remote alley giving minuet space between two skyscraping brick establishments. It permitted even less light past the mildew covered walls procuring more gloom…and shade. Quite an empty place, it seemed.

Garbage cans tipped onto their collapsed, corroded sides. Dirt and grime amassed after years with paltry upkeep. She walked with little hurry down the entire path, her peripheral vision glancing over boarded up side-doors and splintered windows, giving a small glimpse into long abandoned rooms filled with nothing more than cobwebs and further sprinkles of dust. Her new brown, knee length boots crunched on broken bits of glass, littered newspaper articles squished deep into mud, and smashed aluminum cans, their contents half-eaten away by bacteria. Maybe another girl would be too afraid to tread a shady alleyway alone, clinging onto the arm of her strong, manly hero. But as circumstances stood, this lady was nothing like any other girl; was desensitized to feelings of fear after the endless line of horrifying experiences marking her brief life thus far.

And she didn't exactly have a broad-shouldered man to hold onto…

…Even if she did, she never would hold onto…him. Not…not like she was thinking of anyone specifically or anything.

No sooner, did the woman abruptly reach a dead end. A brick wall blocked the rest of the way out. She caught an accidental, sour whiff of a foul smelling liquid, like sulfur, dribbling from the building barrier and couldn't contain the instant reaction to pinch her nose in disgust. Always the dirty jobs…she wondered why she could have such poor luck. As it seemed, the greenish fluid slid from somewhere above.

Lady smirked, shut her eyes, and fully turned her back on the wall.

Speaking of monsters…one of them was right on time.

"KRAAWRRRRRRR!" screeched out the colossal demon, before bounding from where it clung to the top of the brick fortification.

The agile devil hunter luckily rolled beneath its bulk after first sliding Kalina Ann across the distance, as the demon smashed its piercing legs to the ground; eight of them exactly. Could have easily been the size of a small car, the slayer took into account.

"Well well. I've been expecting you." she jeered while using her thumb to rub away the dirt grazing her cheek. A beige sheet sailed into the air. The cloth covering briefly screened most of the sunshine from view…afore it landed softly atop the alley's floor. Having unraveled her rocket launcher, the cannon barrel pointed directly at the thorax of the grotesque creature.

Each of its legs was attached to a sharp edge at the tip. Four of them were akin to that of an oversized arachnid. Albeit the other four…closely and strangely resembled the arms of a humanoid, despite the claws protruding distortedly at each extra finger. The skin on the humanlike limbs was a ghastly gray, the same discoloring rotting corpses displayed when entering into a rigor mortis state. For the rest of the demon's body, it was eternally black besides the sulfuric green sludge seeping around the mouth, as if it were foam escaping a rabid hound's jaws.

Its bulging eyes rifled through the dark obscurity of the backstreet, searching for its fast prey with the overconfident demeanor. The bulbous bloodshot orbs were irregularly large; nothing like any normal spider or beast… There could have easily been over fifteen of the ugly eyeballs. They swelled up at unsystematic places across the demon's back.

When it caught sight of the woman, it lunged once more, screeching out that horrid call. This time it tried to bite down with incisors saturated with the same acidic material dripping on the wall. The slayer somersaulted back and blasted off her machinegun; the resulting torrent of bullets managing to breach one of its many veiny, eyes, the red lines resembling gnarly tree branches spreading to overcome the pupils entirely. Gushes of pus-like secretion mixed with more red sprung forth from the wound. She watched cautiously, firming her grip on the firearm as the thing shrieked in pure torment; clawing its forelegs across the ground and walls, stamping them repeatedly as if making the whole world shake beneath itself.

Deep gashes tore away stone where the immense being had scraped away. They'd be unexplainable for those uninitiated into the cruel truth of demon existence.

She quickly hid behind a dumpster. Stenches of unbearable proportions permeated from within, the source of which…a mystery better left unknown. She didn't care though, not now anyway. This gave just enough time to empty the gun and reload it with another magazine.

"DIE, HUMAN!"

Short-lived as it had been, a gasp did escape Lady's lips as the demon spider tossed away her hidden position with one, powerful swipe. "Shit…" The garbage disposal barely missed hitting her. In the process, one of the handguns she'd pulled out slipped from her careless, sweaty fingers. "SHIT!" Lady was far more upset about the inexperience she was exemplifying than the actual loss of the weapon…considering how a backup was ritually secured on the back of her pleated skirt.

"Don't you think that's a little cliché for an enemy to say to the heroine? Think of something more creative before you pick a fight WITH ME!" Two steady returning fingers clicked the triggers on both the machine gun and now a new handgun as well. Hot threads of deafening metal succeeded in hitting more of the demon's sullied pupils. The hideous monster retreated by scurrying higher up the walls. It could barely fit its enormous size into the tight fit of the lane, but it used the closeness as an advantage for hugging the sides of the buildings. For once, she thanked the sunlight for assisting to see this hidden foe.

Lady dashed after the demon, making way up the coal black steps of an abandoned fire escape, skipping one stair each time. Edging fast, she threw her guns and bullet cartridges into the air, and caught them; reloaded, with previsioned ease. More bullet holes racketed into the rusty red brick while the demon's bladelike arms savagely mauled the metal stairway.

They succeeded in avoiding each other's attacks. They failed in making their own attacks connect.

Then, the beast ceased its scuttling. Lady stopped as well.

The arachnid fiend was still three stories ahead. Using the grappling hook of Kalina Ann to propel her up a flight, she hung from the zip chord and continued to puncture the demon's gray-black flesh. Stabalizing herself, Lady's feet landed elegantly onto another, higher steel platform. The woman had to rapidly rotate herself to face this demon.

Now she could see it directly across plain as day. Pointing the artilleries, the demon hunter's bullets punctured several more of its eyes, more liquid bursting onto the buildings, the demon swaying slightly as if it were to just give in and collapse already.

Somehow, presumably unscathed, the beast lurched its four arachnid legs to spring forth from the wall, supplemented with another of its macabre screams, as four humanlike arms outstretched towards her. Her lips curved into an abnormally ominous grin. The guns were thrown right at the demons face…A bizarre…although successful way to stun it.

Kalina Ann's hook was skillfully drawn out from where it stuck within the wall. The rocket launcher was aimed. The well targeted projectile tore through the spider's hard exterior, and straight past its soft underbelly. It fell down the numerous stories and finally collapsed with a single ground fissuring thump. Lady tentatively looked down over the side of the fire escape's railing at the demon attempting to stand again at the alley's base. With no hesitance, she hurdled herself from the ledge accompanied by Kalina Ann pointed vertically.

"Eat this, you son of a bitch!"

The bayonet blade of her rocket launcher soon lanced into the devil's back, making multiple swollen eyes pop open as the knife-edge was ripped out. Darkened spurt sprayed all around the already filth filled concrete, luckily not staining her white outfit while she jumped away.

If only he were here to see this…not like Lady needed his help. Or…she thought with displeasure and mockery of her own weakness, wouldn't it be great if he'd showed up at the last moment, delivering the killing blow to show off? That dumbass would totally be the one to do that, and she unexpectedly felt her winding frown turn quickly into only a partly scornful sneer. Somehow his stupid, cocky grin had a way of getting the better of her eventually, despite pissing her off to the point of wanting to fight him...again. Nonetheless, it wouldn't hurt to have another demon exterminator beside her now and then, fighting strong adversaries back to back, throwing each other grenades and guns, and high fiving at the end of it all. She'd love to prove to the infuriating man in red that she could be independent, or helpful too, that she could handle herself perfectly fine in the midst of a fight. Which, that was probably something the white haired half-demon already knew…but still…

It always felt to her like he'd only seen her in a defenseless, withdrawn state…So weak and confused… Then again, that was ironically one of the reasons she returned to this lively urban environment, Dante's home; so the fellow devil hunter could help her with a particularly difficult job…

Or maybe that was just another excuse to come back and see if he was doing alright, when she wasn't doing so good.

She stopped. Lady warily beheld her shiftless shadow, the blackened space moving simultaneously with her own body...then sighed. Couldn't even trust her own damn shadow anymore. Who knows what kind of thing could be tracking her footsteps.

The woman dragged the sheet over. Kalina Ann was rewrapped inside. Once again like countless times before, the firearm was heaved over her unrelenting shoulder. In a way, this was a habit, an everyday routine, a way of life she'd been much accustomed to as years continued to pile up. Time didn't wait, neither did the demons, nor did Dante. She would just have to catch up eventually.

"What a nice way to start the day. I get back to Capulet City not even an hour ago and they're already welcoming me with open arms!" Lady found herself laughing while going to retrieve her guns she'd thrown earlier, tightly securing the machine gun in the fitted, leather belt loops laced around her thigh but keeping the small pistol on hand.

A few of the demon's legs continued to twitch, spasms like those of a demented epilepsy victim. Half blinded globes vacantly watched the demon slayer pacing ever closer. Tears never sprung forth from these enemies. Their half-dead stares always tinted over with unadulterated wrath by the end, a rage that couldn't quite be human.

Well, all besides a single enemy she once fought; one devil.

Sometimes…the black haired female wondered if she ever personified these same demons when she too had been young and fiery. Killing with no remorse, destroying all who stood in the way as she climbed the steps of the dismal tower leading further to hell. Mary…the person Lady chose to forget…had been searching for…no, hunting the source of her resentment, the cause of her life and happiness being shredded away and viciously mutilated. Back then, she killed with nothing but fury...and hatred inside. For the sake of her mother, revenge against her father. Had Lady really been all that different from a demon? If so, what about Dante then?

These thoughts are quickly blotted away from creased and closed memories.

"Poor baby. Maybe I should've gone a bit more easy on you, huh?" Lady taunted, leaning forward with two hands sassily returning to her hips.

In a final effort, one of the demon's fingerlike hands gripped her ankle, digging the sharp nails into her boot. The being unlocked its dark, cavernous maw, the acidic saliva pooling out, as it reached to clamp its bleeding jaws upon the devil hunter's torso.

"Or not." she smirked.

Another gunshot violently pierced the fleeting silence; a climatic finale to an abrupt end…

Two teenage boys had been attracted to the abnormal noises and loud gunshots pending from somewhere within the alleyway. They each dared the other to see what had happened, afraid as they were. Before they could decide who would eventually go…a woman retaining faded scars on her nose and thigh unexpectedly emerged from the darkness. They silently watched in awe, noticing the guns not fully concealed on her leg and front pleats of the miniskirt. When the woman proceeded they quickly stumbled out of her path.

She regarded them with a quick grin, before turning away and continuing on, like nothing at all had transpired.

"Who's that badass lady?" the older of the two boys managed to sputter out.

The lady was getting close.

From the distance, she could vaguely make out the pink neon lights, a few letters irregularly blinking on and off from poor maintenance or…faulty electricity. He was never very good at paying the bills on time, she remembers with an amused snicker.

She wouldn't admit her chest romped in the idea of seeing that very same old friend, which would be quite a mystery if he would feel the same. In a way…she felt afraid of returning; of what he might say about her disappearance for two years without a single phone call… They'd argued over something pointless a few days before Lady left too, something they'd done so many times she thought they'd gotten sick of if they hadn't grown out of it first… The only thing she left in his care was her motorcycle.

Slowing her steps somewhat, Lady took in the full sight of the office…exhaling the long held back breath, allowing herself to feel content at the familiarity of it all, how sentimentality was something she never believed to hold anywhere within her closed off core. This was probably the most normal aspect of her life. There had always been somewhere for the woman to return to, even if she'd never ever stay for long. Devil May Cry had become something of a home for the aging girl; that lone little pillar standing resolute…in a big world overrun by demons.

The makeshift shop tugged her back to days long past…Those times really had past in such a quick blink; sometimes Lady still revisited memories of when they'd first been dragged into the route of inevitable and all encompassing death. She sort of...missed those days, when they had to be around each other. When they actually needed one another...

They'd seen each other hit rock bottom once, she remembers. Both their blackened, buried hearts had been torn and chewed out after the events of Temen Ni Gru, after both losing something precious. She knew that very well. The years of demon fighting that followed became a normalcy and that was what strangely ended up healing the two surviving fighters. That, as well as living together; helping the other stand when they themselves were so very ready to fall. They were kind of like two crumbling support beams, Lady thought, giggling sweetly at the cruel irony. Two support beams craned lopsidedly, perpetually ready to plummet, that ultimately stopped the other by only collapsing part way into each other…her and Dante. Brief as it was, Lady did end up staying with the same guy she'd once beared no hesitance in destroying, but then soon trusted entirely after Temen Ni Gru's events. Back then, they assisted each other to stand on wobbly, lost feet. It was something she wouldn't ever forget about the demon man. It was something Lady wished she'd been able to thank him for.

But that was too long ago to regret remembering. Life soon went on…as did the hunters.

Lady moved out not even a year after Devil May Cry had been officially named. The female exterminator never exactly worked with Dante, at least not as a partner status. They disagreed on far too many things for that to succeed, would only interefere in each other's work rather than teaming up well all the time. Therefore, they'd usually fought demons separately more and more. And years would go by.

The two individuals had functioned day to day while pushing back all the loathing and self-hatred, while never forgetting the past, although allowing themselves to comprehend it was the past now, nothing more. All the struggle they'd endured so far was over. But, the future was still to be paved and strewn with the blood and guts of both the innocent and the demons they would soon come to slaughter. That much was for sure. Dante and Lady accepted that. It was their life, their responsibility.

Of course, the two of them had always given each other useful tips along their separated, yet linked paths, and sometimes she'd send odd jobs in his direction too…especially the ones that didn't pay her enough. Then one day, she just left abroad to go find demons in far off places, leaving behind Capulet City and also…leaving behind Dante.

Now here Lady was; returning to dusty ol' Devil May Cry after a couple of years avoiding the place. She hadn't thought of planning her visit. She never did. With all that they'd been through together, all the tragedy, all the hell, it didn't seem fitting to matter much.

It was because of that, Lady decided to change that fear and uncertainty… She closed her eyes again, and breathed, a weird habit Lady hated, that the demon exterminator knew she did whenever she was crazy nervous and agitated. It helped her to realize there wouldn't be any unwelcoming even if they'd broken off contact and their rocky relationship wasn't exactly…blooming. Why should she, the great devil hunter, be afraid of visiting one idiot demon?! No chance in hell!

At least Lady could always count on the half-devil donning a trench coat encompassing his entire form, to be cooped up somewhere inside. Knowing she actually had a person in her life that had yet to fade away, unlike her distanced friends, her loving mother and ultimately her delusional father…is what made her smile sincerely, as rare as that could be. Standing in front of the brass double doors, the windows on them smudged enough so it was incapable of being looked into, Lady could almost say she was happy to be back.

That is until…Lady saw it.

Two eyes; one of red, the other of turquois, followed the logo prudently from beginning to end, one palm tightening upon the band at the shoulder, the other balling into a fist. Those same mismatched eyes stared in obvious revolted skepticism, of disbelief. Her feet halted themselves.

It was wrong; the sign was wrong.

"Since when the hell did he rename it Devil Never Cry?!"

~Devil [XMayX] Never Cry~

{A/N} The reason why the May looks weird above is because there was no option to have a line crossing through the word, that's what is supposed to be there instead. Give me a style rating how it was so far, D or S, or something in between? Tell me what you think of Lady's fighting style, similar to the game? Am I only the one that wishes she was in more games as a playable character besides Project X Zone?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it so far, and find out how this will unravel into the re-renaming of the shop by the time of the anime. Until Mission 2: Old Friends and New Debts! Stay tuned!

Leave a lil' follow, favorite or the best, a review for my crackish needs and so all the Devil May Cry characters can buy a gigantic pizza…with no olives of course. I'm really afraid this will become smothered away by other fanfictions because so many are always updated fo DMC. Please, make my day XD

I'm out.

End of Mission 1