Devil May Cry Zero: Past Ties

Disclaimer: Devil May Cry belongs to Capcom. All original characters in the game belong to it.

Note: This fan fiction is a sequel to the last one I wrote. Even though this is a sequel, it is not necessary to read the first one before reading this one. There isn't much connection between the two in terms of the plot. However, if anyone would like to understand the characters' relationships more please feel free to.

Chapter 1: Suspicion

A woman with blonde hair sat inside a parked truck outside a task-taking shop named Devil May Cry. She was wearing relatively little; merely a skin-tight leather vest that exposed her back and shoulders, along with long black pants despite it was already mid-autumn. It didn't matter her, of course, since she was a demon and felt little change in the air temperature.

Devil May Cry belonged to two young devil hunters. When the woman heard it the first time, she almost laughed out aloud. Devil May Cry? What a joke, she thought.

She had been there for about three hours. During that time, she noticed that that the shop was located in a relatively poor suburb. The street was dirty, gardens were messy and children roamed around the streets unsupervised. Eventually, the door opened and someone came out. The young man was in casual attire, wearing a waist length jacket and slightly loose jeans. He had silver white hair that slicked back not so neatly. When he walked past the unfamiliar truck, he glanced over at it with his cold blue eyes for a moment but didn't stop or slow down. The window's tinting prevented him from making out the features of the person inside.

The woman adjusted her sunglasses. It looked like she was in luck. This devil hunter was the one she wanted to meet. She waited until he made the turn at the end of the street before igniting the truck engine with a turn of key.

Dante sat up from his favourite spot on the couch when he heard three clear knocks on his front door. He opened it and saw his two expected guests. They were two identical twin girls in their late teens. Both of them had long black hair and clear green eyes. Rei, the elder twin had her hair tied up to a ponytail. The bits of hair that was not long enough to be tied up hang in front of her ears. She was wearing a light yellow blouse and jeans. Mia, the younger twin had her hair down naturally. Like her twin, she wore blouse and jeans but her blouse was black instead. "Right on time girls," Dante greeted them. He noticed Rei was holding a white cardboard box in her hands.

"Homemade chocolate mud cake," Rei answered when he looked at the box then at her. Almost instinctively, she stepped back before Dante could take it from her. "But we're going to eat it later together," she smiled.

Dante threw up his hands. "Fair enough," he said and walked back into the house. The place was as messy as Rei remembered it when she first came. Some spots such as the coffee table and desk looked like Vergil made an effort to clean it up before he left but Dante had already placed stuff on those places again. "The fridge is over there," Dante pointed the way. "It doesn't like strangers very much so just pull the handle like you've got nothing to lose."

"Um, ok," Rei said unsurely. Mia followed her twin to the kitchen. It was her first time to the shop so she was looking all around her like a child going to the park for the first time.

"I feel sorry for Vergil," Mia said, shaking her head at the same time. This was the messiest house she'd ever been to. There wasn't even a place to sit.

Knowing she was talking about his mess, Dante replied. "You should feel sorry for me. Do you know how many times I get lectured a day? Aroundthree quartersof what he says to me each day is about the condition of this house. Why he never gets sick of repeating is still a mystery to me."

Back to the couch where he sat, Dante returned his attention on the TV. There was nothing interesting on but he doesn't really have much else to do. He found the remote and started flipping through the available channels. Soon he heard a loud bang from the kitchen. It was the sound of the fridge door being opened. It was an old one that can't be opened without using considerable force on it. Dante had gotten used to it, but it must've surprised the girls. Rei began shoveling and reorganising things in the fridge to make room for her cake.

"Dante, don't you have any drinks in your fridge?" One of the girls asked. Dante knew it was Mia without even turning around to see.

"I drank them all yesterday. But no worries, there's always the tap," he winked at her.

"By the way," Rei said while trying to close the fridge door that kept on bouncing back open. "Where's Vergil?"

"He went out to get the videos," Dante replied. "Just give it a boot," he told Mia.

Right after he said that, Mia kicked it shut. It startled Rei a little. Ignoring the frowns coming from her elder twin sister, Mia said "I'm going out to buy some drinks." She grabbed her purse and headed out.

"Just don't come back with ten bags of grocery!" Rei called to her from behind before the door shut. Not even Rei could understand why her twin could buy a lot of things wherever she goes.

Mia remembered passing a convenient store on her way to Devil May Cry. She looked at the sky above her. Rows of clouds were dyed in various shades of orange and pink by the setting sun. It was very beautiful, except that the sun looked redder than usual. So red that it looked ominous, like it could burst any moment. Shaking the thoughts of her head, Mia concentrated on the path ahead of her. From a distance, she could see someone familiar was standing outside the store. His face was exactly the same as Dante. There was no mistake, it was Vergil. He was not alone. A woman with long blonde hair was talking to him.

The next second, Mia found herself crouching behind the nearest street light pole and looking at the two like a paparazzi. What am I doing? She asked herself. The side face of the woman looked a somewhat familiar, but she couldn't remember when or where she had seen her before. The woman did most of the talking. Vergil occasionally spoke back. However Mia wasn't close enough to hear a word of it. When their conversation seemed to have ended, Vergil followed the woman to a truck. It was not a big truck – smaller than a semi-trailer but bigger than a van. Moving quickly, Mia crept behind the truck. She waited until the two have closed the doors before opening the truck container.

Back in the shop, Dante and Rei were watching TV together. Dante noticed Rei was glancing back and forth at the clock and the TV screen, probably more often at the former. He couldn't blame her. Mia had been out for almost two hours and still hadn't come back. He was too starting to wonder what his elder twin had been up to. Rei stood up suddenly.

"Dante, I'm going to…"

"Hell, it's already 7? I've been sitting for too long. I'm going out for a stretch," Dante interrupted her. "If I happen to see the two of them I'll kick their sorry asses back here."

"Thanks, Dante," Rei smiled gratefully. Grabbing his coat with one hand, Dante waved at her as a reply without looking back.

The devil hunter came back half an hour later. Rei was disappointed when he didn't return with either of the two. She still looked at him hopefully and waited for him to speak. Perhaps the people at the convenient store and video rental shop had seen them.

Dante took off his coat and throw it on his desk. "The bloke down the street got a new bike," He said finally.

"No jokes please, Dante," Rei said tiredly.

Dante closed his eyes and shook his head. Rei slumped onto a chair. "Where can they be?" she asked no one in particular.

Suddenly the phone rang. Rei was closer so she got it.

"Hello?" She asked, hoping it was her twin sister. To her surprise, it was.

"Hi Rei!" Mia's energetic voice came from the other end.

"Mia! Where have you been?" Rei thought she heard herself yell. She felt a little more relieved to hear her twin sounding like she usual do.

"I'm sorry," Mia apologised. "I saw Vergil got inside a truck with a woman. I thought he was cheating on you so I decided to follow him by hiding in the truck container."

"Mia, you know I don't even know if he…" Rei then remembered Dante was next to her. I don't even know if he likes me, she swallowed the other half of the sentence into her stomach.

"I was just joking. You're being too serious again Rei," Mia laughed. "But I do think he likes you," she added.

Rei sighed. "Anyway, where are you?"

"In fact, I don't know," Mia answered. "We just got off the highway. Right now I'm calling you while they are refuelling the truck. I can see a very big hot dog on the other side of the road. It's probably a hot dog place. Also, the traffic on the highway was really bad because of the road work and congestion." While talking in the phone booth, Mia had an eye on Vergil and the blonde hair woman. They just finished buying some food and paid for the fuel at the register. "Hey Rei I got to go. Bye!" She hangs up quickly.

"Hang on Mia, you're still going to follow…" the line went dead before Rei finished. Without a choice, she put the receiver back on the holder.

"Mia is following Vergil somewhere. She doesn't even know where they are right now." She told Dante, blushing slightly in embarrassment.

"Hey that's not a bad thing. At least it sounds more interesting than watching movies here for the night," Dante said, grinning.

"Highways with roadwork at the moment are …" Rei muttered to herself while trying to recall the traffic news on radio earlier in the evening that she didn't pay much attention to. "Number 3, 15 and…" She couldn't recall the last one.

"8," Dante told her. He dug through a pile of junk mail and held up a hot dog flyer. "Come and try out hot dogs with a flavour that will sure amaze…whatever. 5 minutes drive after taking exit 54 on highway number 8."

"Looks like that's it," Rei put her hand under her chin. "If they are refuelling, it means they still have a fair bit of way to go."

"Wait for another one," Dante said and headed to his room. Rei had to agree. They'll wait for at least another phone call before following.

After hanging up the line, Mia ran back to the truck. The petrol boy who was responsible for the truck pretended he hadn't seen her. He was surprised when Mia jumped out from the back after the driver and her companion went into the shop. He was easily silenced when Mia hushed him and shoved ten dollar into his hand. "Take your time, ok?" she said to him. The boy put the ten dollar note in his pocket and nodded.

"Let's see who can run home faster!" Dante said to Vergil. They just finished their classes at school.

"You really want to be beaten for the 100th time so much huh?" Vergil said to his younger twin with a grin.

"I'm going to win this time," Dante snorted. The twin boys started running at the same time without anyone saying 'ready set go' for them.

Before they reach the house they knew something was wrong. Their half-devil body made their senses much stronger than usual humans. They could smell the stinging scent of blood a block away. Both of them noticed at the same time but Vergil made it home a little quicker.

"Mum!" He yelled out for Eva as soon as he opened the door. There was blood on the floor of the lounge but no signs of her. He headed for the kitchen. Dante arrived at that time. He looked in the laundry. She wasn't there either. He found Vergil standing at the door of the bedroom, with a look he had never seen before.

"No Dante, don't come in here!" Vergil cried out when he realised Dante was heading over to where he was. It was too late. Dante, too, saw it. He screamed.

"Dante, wake up!" Dante could faintly hear the urgency in the gentle voice calling his name. He opened his eyes and found himself on his own bed. It was still night time. He must've fallen asleep without knowing even though he just intended to lie down for a while. Rei was standing at his side.

"Are you ok?" She asked worriedly. "You were yelling in your dream."

Wiping some sweat off his own forehead, Dante sat upright. There was a moment of silence. "Did I say anything?" He asked.

"I couldn't hear you very well. But you mentioned your mother, I think," Rei answered. There was a longer silence. Dante glanced at his alarm clock. It was ten sixteen at night. Rei looked tired. It didn't seem like she took a nap like he did.

At that moment, the phone rang. Rei ran out to get it.

"Hello?"

"It's me Rei," it was Mia. "They're stuck at a landslide right now. I'm calling from a phone booth again. We really need to get mobile phones you know," she joked.

"Where are you?" The elder twin asked. Dante came out of his room, took a chair and sat down beside her.

"I can see a sign that says 'Cockatoo National Park 500 meters on the left'. It's really dark here; I haven't seen any street lights in ages. I could only read the sign when a car came by and shone its headlight on it," Mia told her. "I didn't even know if there is a phone near where the car is right now but thank god there is."

Dante thought about his dream. Only that it wasn't really a dream. He was seeing the event that happened eight years ago. He dreamed about it the first couple of years since his mother died but the last time he had this dream was years ago. He wondered if Vergil dreamed about it sometimes too. They never talked about it but he thought they both knew. They were twins, after all. Then it occurred to him. Mia mentioned Vergil going off with a blonde, long-haired woman. Can it possibly be? he thought. But she's dead. There's no way that…

"Do you know where they're going?" Rei asked. It stunned her when the phone was suddenly snatched from her hand.

"What does the blonde woman look like?" Dante asked. But all he heard was the steady dial tone.

"Damn! There goes all my coins," Mia grumbled to herself when the line went dead. Cold night air greeted as soon as she walk out of the booth. She didn't want to go back into the truck container. Not only was it uncomfortable inside, it was dark and smelt bad. I'm so stupid, she thought to herself. I'm going to kill someone if this turns out to be Vergil visiting an old friend of his. With much reluctance, she slowly made her way back to the truck.

Author's notes:

I'm back and writing a sequel to DMC0! I can hardly believe it. Thanks to my friends who read this as well as the readers of the previous fic.Actully, now is probably the worst time for me to start a story. I'm buried under a mountain of assignments at the moment. Is there a shop that sells time? I really need to buy some...

Big thanks to my friend Veronica for beta-reading this for me.