Lyla

A/N: This chappie could be called the prologue my dears, I know its short, but it explains what happened to Monica's body and the gypsy's reasons for taking it. Enjoy!

The old gypsy stood over the wooden table where she had placed the body of the young woman. Her green eyes were locked intently on the other woman's face; time seemed to go by slowly as she waited in the dark for the other to wake.

"Esmeralda, are you sure about this?" one of her most trusted men, Javert, asked looking at the unmoving body before him. By the outlaw biker jacket that he held in his hand he could tell that if something went wrong they could have some serious problems on their hands.

"She will never see them again," Esmeralda reassured him, turning to look at Javert who was looking down at the bloodied piece of clothing on his hands. "There is nothing to fear."

"Yes, but what if she-" he started before the old woman cut him off with her hand.

Her golden bangles clinked and shone in the dim lighting provided by the candles around them as Javert's brow furrowed.

The woman on the table before them started to stir, both of them turned to look at her in anticipation.

Her brown eyes opened slowly and looked around in confusion, her bloodied hand rose to cover her face for a brief moment as she breathed unevenly.

Her vision was blurred and her head spun uncontrollably, she couldn't even lift her head without her whole body protesting in pain.

"W-Where am I?" her hoarse voice asked as Esmeralda maintained her distance and looked at her creation with gleaming eyes. Javert's own pair widened upon seeing the woman talk and move, he didn't think Esmeralda capable of having such powers until now.

"Paris, my dear, you're in Paris," Esmeralda told her as the woman shook her head and sat up with much difficulty. Her hand wrapped around the crimson silk sheet that had been placed over her. She held it to her chest noticing it was the only thing covering her body; she wondered where her clothes went.

The woman's confused looked returned as she felt her stomach and pulled back her hand to reveal even more blood staining her palm. Her eyes shot up to look at the old woman before her and the man that stood behind her in accusation.

"Who are you? W-why am I here?" she asked pulling the sheet around her naked body closer, she started to shiver when a cold breeze entered the small room in which they were in.

"Take that with you, do not let her see it, go and get Dante," Esmeralda snapped in a hushed whisper motioning to the jacket as Javert nodded and turned towards the door. He kept the leather jacket away from the woman's view before disappearing out into the night air.

"My dear, you need to calm down, I am only here to help," Esmeralda told her walking over to her form as she sat at the edge of the table, tears streaming down her pale face.

"Who are you?" she asked again looking around with apparent fear. Her head shook in denial as she tried to remember how she had gotten there, much to her horror she couldn't recall a thing. "Why can't I remember anything?" she asked once more as Esmeralda's smile returned. So her plan had worked, she had no memory of her past.

"There, there, my darling," she whispered brushing a strand of hair from the woman's face, "there is no need to upset yourself over this," the gypsy added brushing the tears away from the other woman's face.

"How did I even all of these stitches on me?" she asked motioning down towards the wound that Esmeralda had closed up before she had woken up. The old gypsy shook her head slightly and started to explain before she was interrupted with the sounds of heavy boots hitting the wooden floor at the entrance.

"You called?" a deep voice asked as a man came through the doorway looking agitated before his eyes landed on the woman sitting on top of the table. He dropped the angered look that he had entered with and stared at her with an unreadable expression.

"Who are all of you?" the woman asked once more as Dante frowned and turned to look at Esmeralda. The old gypsy shook her head at him before the woman stood shakily from the table and tried to walk away from them.

Fear was running through her mind as she tried to recall how she had gotten all of the bruises on her body, her memory came up blank. She held on to the back of a chair as she tried to remember where she came from, her mind didn't answer. Her scared expression only increased when she tried to remember who she was, she couldn't even recall her name.

Dante looked at her with concern apparent in his grey eyes as Esmeralda nodded her head at him. He moved forward just as the woman's legs collapsed beneath her. He held her to close to him as her half lidded eyes landed on him.

"Who am I?" she asked drowsily as Esmeralda smiled behind the pair.

"Lyla, your name is Lyla," the old gypsy woman lied replying to the other woman before Dante could.

"Lyla…?" the other woman asked before her head fell back and she lost consciousness once more. Esmeralda couldn't have been more overjoyed with how things were going. Dante merely held her in his arms with disapproval apparent in his eyes upon having to lie to her. He looked to Esmeralda waiting for answers, he never go any.

"She cannot remain here," the old woman told him as he tilted his head in confusion.

"I've searched through her memories before I erased them and found that she has a liking for fur," Esmeralda explained as Dante opened his mouth to protest only to be stopped once more. "She will remain with you, your traveling car is far more suited than this cold one," the old gypsy told him. He sighed when he recalled the mass of pelts in which he slept in whenever they traveled; he knew Esmeralda would use that against him one day.

Dante looked down at Lyla and nodded grimly, he held her closer as he noticed the old gypsy walk over to them. Esmeralda stopped when she noticed the act and tilted her head in intrigue.

"Remember this, she must never know her true name, Dante," the woman warned as the man before her clenched his jaw. Esmeralda could see the turmoil within him, it was written all over his features.

"Esmeralda, this is wrong, bringing a woman back from the dead…the day she finds out the truth-"

"Is the day that I slaughter you for telling her," Esmeralda told him coldly cutting him off as Dante dropped his head. He had forgotten his place, the woman before him was his leader, he shouldn't be questioning her. The gypsy looked at the man before her and smiled at the expression he was making, he was too young to understand her reasoning. She smiled when she noticed how close he was in appearance with the biker that the woman had once known...Lucifer was his name, if she remembered correctly. Dante could have been his doppelganger.

"Go, make sure she is warm, we depart in a few moments," the old gypsy informed him as he nodded and carefully shifted her in his arms before leaving. He exited from the carriage that he had just gotten her from and walked over to his own a few feet back.

He stopped briefly to check on the horses that would be pulling his carriage before another winter breeze danced around him making him realize that the woman in his hold was shivering. He frowned slightly before entering the large traveling car.

He walked over to his large bed and gently placed her down onto it before realizing that she had nothing but a silk sheet covering her exposed body. A deep shade of red settled onto his cheeks as he reached over and covered her with a large wolf pelt, he stepped back and turned away from her.

"We're leaving Paris and with it your previous life," he told the unconscious woman before him knowing she wasn't able to hear him. Guilt settled over him once he remembered what she had been put through. She had been torn away from everything she once held dear, brought back to life after death had claimed her, and had to have her memory erased in order to extract revenge on someone she had once known.

Dante couldn't understand Esmeralda's thinking, she was making the woman in front of him suffer in order to get back at a man that they were all too familiar with.

Dante merely wondered if it was all worth it.

He didn't think it was right to use her but if it was what Esmeralda wanted then he would have to approve of it nonetheless. He felt a slight pang of jealousy towards the other man when he looked at the woman on his bed, her frail body shaking despite the mass of fur that she had around her. She curled up into the pelts and grabbed one before pulling it up covering half of her face. She was too beautiful to be stuck in the darkness with that monster; she deserved a better life now, a life someone else could offer her.

Esmeralda was right about that, if only that.

"Dante, I will leave her under your charge, if she needs anything do not hesitate to ask," a voice startled him as he turned towards the wooden door of the entrance and noticed it was Esmeralda. He nodded briefly at her before she closed the door and whistling filled the air.

Seconds later he heard the snapping of whips as the carriage moved forward being pulled by the horses outside. Dante moved towards the woman once more and sat beside her on a leather chair, his expression troubled as he shook his head once more. His gloved hand caressed the side of her cheek as she scrunched up her nose before she leaned forward into his touch with a soft sigh. Her soft lips seemed to ghost over his palm as he pulled back and looked at her once more.

"Lyla does not suit you; your true name was far more fitting…Monica."

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