As they walked, Kat and Ellie seemed to bond. Kat had the answer Ellie had needed and Kat was more than happy to help a fellow medium and to share their fellow interest in Wiccan culture and charms. Dante was walking a few steps ahead of them, trying not to listen. The subject didn't matter to him, and he basically just wanted the money. So when a deep grumbled shook the ground, he was a bit too excited about it.

"Let's roll!" He grinned, Kat and Ellie looked slightly more concerned. However no demons appeared. The buildings however began to shift, threatening to smash them like pancakes.

"Run!" Kat shouted. The strange trio began to run towards the end of row of buildings. However as if it was needed, Ellie tripped and was sent flying face down in the ground.

"Keep running!" Dante called to Kat, who had slowed down to help the little girl, but seeing as Dante was both faster and more agile, it made more sense for him to help Ellie. He made a full stop and turned around to sprint back to the girl, trying her best to get back up, clearly shaken and scared. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back with him, running and full speed, Ellie barely keeping up. After a quick look around, he realized they were not going to make it through to the other side. He looked up and found a ledge, capable to reach with the Osiris. Soaring through the air was not what Ellie enjoyed after frantically running for her life. After they landed on the roof on a shifting building, Ellie kept holding tight around his waist.

"Hey, we have landed now." He said. Should he get her to let go? It felt weird, awkward. She still didn't let go.

"Dante?! Ellie?!" He heard Kat call from the street below.

"We're here!" He shouted to her from the roof. "We're okay, coming down in a second."

"H… how are we going down?" Ellie finally loosened her grip.

"We jump." Dante said as if it was completely normal.

"Are you crazy?" Ellie shot a quick glance down. "You'll be crushed!"

"No, I won't." He smiled. "It's perfectly safe, I have certain abilities, that make me dangerous to demons and give me… superhuman advantages." He didn't want to explain the Nephilim business with her.

"Are you like… part demon or something?" She asked. "I read a lot of fantasy novels. " She added at Dante's confused look from her very accurate suggestion.

"Yes, I have a bit of demon blood." He said. Was she going to freak out or something? He didn't know how to handle things like that.

"I never thought it would actually happen." She muttered. "But I guess there are always cross overs… sort of." She smiled, hoping she hadn't been offending.

"Crossovers, yes." Of the worse kind, he thought. "Alright, let's go then." He walked to the edge and waited for her. Very reluctantly, she walked over to him and crawled up on his back. He heard her take a deep breath, then he jumped of the edge. Her deep breath didn't stop her from screaming. Right into his ears.

"Are you okay?" Kat asked as Ellie carefully climbed of Dante's back.

"Yeah, yeah…" She said, obviously shocked.

"I'm not." Dante covered his ears. "I think my eardrums have burst." Both girls ignored him.

They were about to continue on their merry way, when a huge hoard of demons came out. Stygian, Death Knights, Kat's favorite, Shielded Bathos and a handful of others.

"Seriously?" Dante grunted annoyed. Kat took Ellie's arm and they took cover. Angry, he summoned Aquila and began slicing at his enemies, occasionally shifting to Eryx or Arbiter to take down the shield-carrying demons. Their numbers were vast and it seemed like they kept on coming. Fucking demons.

"Dante!" He heard Kat call. "I think the feds are on their way!" Shit, he had to end this now. He ran into the middle of the crowd, trying to get the demons as close as possible, before he released the Devil Trigger. The power of Sparda. Now completely effortlessly, he sliced and hacked at the airborne demons, now immensely stronger. He had gotten most of them, when he felt the Devil Trigger's power fade again. After crushing the skull of a floating Stygian, he was back to normal. During his time in Devil Trigger mode, the feds had actually arrived as well. One of them must have had a poor aim or have seen him as demon as well, either way, 5 shots were fired at him and 3 of them found their way into his stomach. His otherwise infinite record of not landing on his face after a jump, was now broken. Usually bullets hardly demanded attention from him, but these were different. They actually hurt, and stopped his actions and focus. He got on his feet again and looked around. The feds were now completely occupied with the demons and seemed to have forgotten about him. In order to protect their citizen, the government had issued huge research projects on how to deal with the demons, and they had actually made weapons, especially bullets, that were somewhat poisonous to the demons, making the feds capable of actually killing them. Was he hit by those kind of bullets?

"Dante, we've got to get out of here!" Kat came running and pulled him to his feet. "Ellie says she knows a way." Dante followed without a word. They ran in back alleys, avoiding the heavily populated streets. After putting some distance between them and the feds and demons, they stopped in front of an old, closed down bakery.

"Okay, then it's just through here and then we get to the subway." Ellie gasped for breath. She picked out a hairpin and began picking the lock.

"Impressive." Kat said. Then she noticed something, a very subtle thing. First of all, Dante hadn't smashed the door down already, secondly, he was leaning heavily against the wall, leaning forward, clutching his stomach with a painful expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" She asked concerned, carefully approaching him. Then she noticed his blood covered hand, the blood stain on his shirt slowly spreading.

"Must be the bullets. Demonic." He gasped.

"Oh my god!" Ellie exclaimed when she saw the blood. "You were shot?"

"Yeah." He winced as he walked to the door. "I guess those anti-demonic bullets are effective against me as well. This will heal in a minute." He gave them both a reassuring smile. Not quite convinced, Kat followed him inside.

"At least bandage it up." She suggested as she closed the door behind them. Ellie led them into the kitchen, where she found some towels and tablecloths in a cupboard.

"I used to come here a lot." She explained. "Back when I was 'crazy'." She handed the towels to Kat, wary of the injured Dante. "These are clean."

"Alright." Kat turned to him. "Take of your shirt."

"Exciting." He gave her a cheeky smile, but nevertheless began to take of his coat. But his injuries proved the make the task of undressing not so simple. The movements clearly pained him, even though he tried to hide it.

"Here…" Kat quietly walked over to him and pulled his coat of his shoulders, then began working his shirt up over his head, which was easier said than done, seeing as he was much taller than her. When she walked over to the sink to wet the towels, a small, thankful smile sneaked its way on her lips. A few months ago, their roles had been reversed. However that smile faded, when she turned around. The lower half of his torso was covered in blood, and some of it had run down his legs as well.

"Maybe you should lie down." She pointed to the table in the middle of the kitchen.

"I'll be fine, don't worry." He said, but not very convincing, despite his efforts, he was clearly not fine.

"We have to clean the blood of you at least." Kat tried to sound stern, but she was very worried. What if the poison was too strong for his body to heal? "So get your ass on that table!"

"I love it when you talk dirty." Dante apparently had an incontrollable need to make dirty comments whenever he could. She sent an embarrassed glance to Ellie, hoping the girl didn't think they 'talked dirty' regularly, but the girl just seemed confused and scared.

"Stay close, okay?" Kat gave her a little smile. "I know this isn't nice to watch, but he doesn't die so easily." Ellie nodded and stepped closer. Taking a deep breath, Kat turned to Dante, who had actually gotten his ass on the table, now resting on his elbows. With the wet towel, she began to clean the blood of his body, avoiding the wounds at first. Before she started to clean them, she sent Dante a warning look, and he nodded. When the towel touched the wounds, his body tensed up and he stopped breathing, but not a single sound escaped his lips. When the blood was cleaned off, she examined the wounds. The bleeding had almost stopped and she could see a very faint glow around the edges. He was right, he was healing, he was going to be fine.

"Are the bullets still in?" Ellie was now standing beside them.

"Leave them in." Dante frowned. "Let's get you home first."

"No." Kat broke in. "Don't you think leaving them in will make it worse?" she wasn't actually sure whether this was the case with someone with his powers. Dante rolled his eyes and was about to say something, but stopped. His eyes widened in a disgusted frown and he closed his mouth so tight, they could almost hear his jaw creek.

"What…" Cat began, but he swung his legs off the table and headed for the sink. Leaning into the sink, he began to cough and spit, and finally vomited. Kat and Ellie just watched, unsure of what to do and set back by the somewhat horrible display. When Dante finally stopped coughing and stepped away from the sink, he seemed disoriented and weakened. He let go of the sink and stumbled to the floor, where he remained, gasping. Both girls came alive and rushed over to him. There was blood on his mouth and chin and Kat made sure not to look in the sink.

"Dante?" she sat down in front of him. "Dante, can you hear me?" she was afraid he had lost consciousness, because his eyes were closed and he didn't really react to anything they did. "Dante?" She said louder and took his head in her hands. Much to her relief, he opened his eyes and straight at her.

"Yeah." His voice was hoarse. "I'm here."

"What happened?" Ellie asked. "I thought you were healing or something."

"The bullets." Was all he said. He looked sick and his head felt warm. Had he worked up a fever already? "The poison, I can't keep up."

"We have to get the bullets out." Kat said and helped up to his feet. Ellie tried to contribute, despite the fact that her head was in the same height as his elbows. Not quite effortlessly, the girls got him to the table again, this time he didn't sit up, just lay flat on his back, seemingly exhausted.

"How are we going to get the bullets out?" Ellie whispered as she stared at his bloodied stomach.

"I… I'm not sure." Kat looked around. This was an old bakery, not exactly equipped with medical supplies or equipment. "Start looking for anything you think can work."

"But there isn't anything! We can't exactly use a spoon." Panic was growing in her voice.

"Hey, calm down." Kat gave her a little smile. "We'll have to improvise. Just look for anything that can be used to grab things or something." Ellie nodded and began to look around and Kat joined her, sending worried looks to Dante in regular intervals. A few minutes later, they had raided every cupboard and drawers in the building and the only usable item they had found was a pair of tweezers from the bathroom. They cleaned them as well as they could and went downstairs.

"I guess this will have to do." Kat dreaded to dig it into Dante's flesh.

"All we could find was tweezers." Ellie said apologetically as they entered the kitchen. Dante nodded and held out his hand. Did he intend to do it himself?

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Kat asked.

"Are you sure you can do it yourself?" she looked at him. Despite his general rudeness and lewd comments, he still possessed kindness. For just a badly timed second, she was incredibly happy to be with him, then she focused on reality.

"Yes, I can." She said meekly. "Besides I don't even think it's you're capable of digging a bullet out of your own stomach. You'll have to sit up and the angle will too difficult."

"Then you guide me." He held out his hand again. "Come one, it's not going to be a pretty sight, even if anesthetics worked on me. Besides, you can't hold me down."

"Then you'll have to lie very still." Holding the tweezers away from him. "I can do this, let me help. It'll be easier for you this way."

"Are you sure?" He asked after a while. She nodded firmly. "Alright." He grabbed the edges of the table, ready for the incoming pain. Kat turned to Ellie.

"Look, as he said, this isn't going to be a pleasant sight. Wait outside, if you want to?" Ellie nodded and went out the door, even up the stairs and into the bathroom, hoping to avoid hearing any sounds of pain.

"Okay, let's do this." Kat said and rolled her shoulders. She was so nervous, but rather this than let Dante dig out the bullets himself.

"In your own time." He tried to sound cheeky, but he was drawing short breaths and his knuckles had turned white from clenching the table. Kat carefully placed a hand by the wounds, for stability and tried to decide where to start. She cleared her throat and wiped some blood away, hoping to regain some more focus. She tried to locate one of the bullets, it was barely visible in his flesh, but it was there.

"Here I go." She said and as carefully as possible reached for the bullet. Every muscle in Dante's body seemed to tense up and he gritted his teeth.

"Hold still." Kat said, trying to grab the bullet with the tweezers. A series of hisses and grunts came from him, but she wasn't actually sure if he had tried to say something. Then she felt the tweezers touch the bullet and praying to every god she knew for luck, she pulled it out.

"Got it!" She said. Dante was gasping on the table, resisting the urge to curl up in pain. "Two to go, come on." He didn't exactly seem encouraged, but lay back down, readied for the next bullet to be dug out.

It was sat deeper in the flesh that the previous bullet, and much to her horror, Kat had to make several attempts to even get a hold of it.

"Hold on." She said as Dante let out a loud groan, his first real human sound so far. She was tried not to think, just get the bullet out, but deep down, she wanted to just forget this all, throw the tweezers away and hide somewhere. But the fear of him possibly dying from this kept her going. On the seventh or so attempt, she finally got the bullet out. She dropped it on the floor and watched as Dante, half-conscious by now, gasped in pain. Guilt, helplessness and fear threatened to make her lose focus and panic, but she fought it as well as she could.

"Alright." Her voice was weak. "One m-more." She had a big lump in her throat. What if he didn't make it? When Dante let out an especially painful sigh, she had to turn around and bite her lip hard. Do not cry, Kat!

"Are… are you okay?" he was basically gasping, his voice even weaker than hers.

"Yes." She said, blinking a tear-in-progress away. "I'm okay." He tried to give her a skeptical look, but it ended in a grimace. Gathering all her concentration and will, Kat approached the last bullet, hoping that ti wouldn't take half a dozen tries to get out. Much to her relief, the bullet was not nearly as deep as the previous ones. But when she was about to grab it, Dante made a jolt, making her almost stab him.

"Lay still." She said. "This won't be as bad."

"S-st-stop." He hissed. His body made another jolt and she realized that he was suppressing a coughing fit. She moved behind him and had him sit somewhat up, supporting his weight. A horrible gurgling cough began, he was almost choking. It was like her fingers were numb with panic, she had no idea how to help him now. When the coughing stopped, he leaned back so heavily, she almost buckled under from the weight. She awkwardly stroked his arm, unsure whether to go for the bullet again. It seemed like he could use a break, but if the bullets were killing him, they had to get out as soon as possible. Then Dante smiled at her, he had blood on his teeth and it made him look downright creepy, but the smile was genuinely reassuring.

"One to go, right?" he croaked, his voice was incredibly hoarse from the coughing. "Come on, you're doing great." She was doing great? It sure didn't look like it, he was pale, weakened, sweating and his face and chest was splattered with blood.

"I'm so sorry." She whispered. "You're hurting and I… I can't, I'm causing so much pain, right?" this was probably ridiculous, but she couldn't help it, she felt guilty for all his pain.

"Hey, this isn't your fault." He reached out for her arm and brushed it. "Come on, you're getting so good at this." He flashed another bloody smile. She let out a sound, a mixture of a scoff, a sob and a laugh. She took a deep breath and went for the last bullet. She was thankful that Dante was so tired by now, he hardly moved and she got the bullet out in a matter of seconds. She cleaned the blood of her hands and off his body, then made a bandage with the remaining towels and tied it firmly around his wounds.

"Dante, are you conscious?" she realized he had lay completely still and with his eyes closed for a while.

"Barely." He mumbled. "Why, do you have a trick to keep me awake?" he gave her another of his cheeky smiles., but it was obvious that he was exhausted.

"No, just get some rest." She smiled back. "I'm going to check on Ellie." She put the biggest towel on him as a blanket and went upstairs.