A/N: An enormous thanks to my fabulous reviewers! Your encouragement is invaluable! Anyway, here's the second chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Devil May Cry. If I did, this would not be fanfiction, but canon game play.
By the way, italic text is quoted from Lady and italic bold is quoted from Dante. Enjoy!
Chapter 2
What would you know about family! You're a demon!
He supposed he had never truly known what 'normal' family life was. After all, breeding between different species wasn't exactly common. Especially between humans and demons. Hell, if he'd been an only child, he would have been one of a kind. He'd have liked that. Well, maybe not so much.
He's my father! I'm responsible for all this mess. Besides, who else can undo what he's done?
Responsibility? He had never known it, and never wanted to. When he had lost all that he cared about, he was only a child. He hadn't really understood just what had been taken from him. Trusting in nobody but himself and the sword which was the last remnants of a fractured legacy. That was how he lived. But then…
I'm driven by the inability to forgive him! My soul is screaming, demanding me to kill him!
…Vergil.
Why do you care so much?
Lady had known precisely where she stood in regards to her Father. Her hatred, her desire for vengeance for her mother's death had given her the motivation to go to any lengths. He understood. He had spent half his life exacting revenge on an entire race in the name of retribution.
This whole business started with my Father sealing the entrance between the two worlds.
He hated Sparda. Hated his Father for being weak, for abandoning them, for dying. For leaving nothing but destruction and agony and a broken world for his son. Well, sons. But Dante hadn't known that until recently.
And now, my brother's trying to break that spell and turn everything into Demonville.
He hadn't understood. Still didn't. And now, he realized, he hadn't even tried to. He had been afraid of the result. Terrified that his brother was beyond saving, that his body still lived, but the Vergil he had known was gone. Somehow, it was easier to believe that. To not dare to hope.
Quite frankly, at first, I didn't give a damn… Or so he had told himself.
Dante stood perfectly still, arm outstretched, his fingers frozen grasping at nothingness. He had failed again. It was just like before. Yet again, he had lost everything that mattered because of his own stubborn foolishness.
Well…maybe not. He still had a choice.
The ground felt like it was trying to shake itself to pieces. All around him the landscape seemed to be self-destructing, tearing itself apart. He stared at the place where Vergil had fallen out of sight, and felt the flow of the river pushing at his ankles, coaxing him. He thought of the closing portal. Of his life until now.
For four, blessed years, he had had everything. A loving Mother, a caring Father, a tolerable (at times) Brother. For four more years, he had still known peace, united with his twin and his mother against the prejudice people heaped upon them.
Then, just like that, they had gone. What had he gained since then? What had he lived for?
Only himself. It had been enough. It had to be. Except…for those few brief minutes, when he and Vergil had fought together against Arkham, side by side…for the first time in so long, he had felt…complete. Whole again. Alive. He wanted to feel like that again.
I know what's important now. I know what I have to do. What did he have to lose?
He smirked bitterly, sheathed Rebellion, and set about strapping his Father's sword tightly to his back "This is taking 'I'd follow even into the depths of hell' a little too literally for my taste…" he muttered to himself "Ah well."
He marched resolutely to the very edge of the stone from which Vergil had jumped, and peered down into the pitch black. It didn't look very inviting. Still, it wasn't like he could turn back now.
"If he's not already dead, I'm going to kill him." He griped loudly, trying to drown the frantic beating of his heart "Making me go all 'heroic revelation'. Pfff. I don't do cliché."
He jumped. For a moment, he seemed to hang in midair, as though Hell was caught in indecision over whether it wanted to have him or not. But then gravity snatched him and dragged him down, pulling with such force that all the air was knocked from his lungs.
He fell for what seemed like hours, pressure tearing at his clothes and pulling at his skin. His bones rattled in the seemingly brittle shell of his flesh, and he gritted his teeth, hastily placing a hand over Ebony and Ivory, who were about to be ripped from their holsters. The pitch blackness pressed against his eyes oppressively, as though trying to swallow him up.
Finally, a hazy light filtered through the darkness, and he prepared himself for what was bound to be a rough welcoming committee. Sure enough, within a few seconds he had slammed into something hard with a sickening crunch.
He pulled a shuddering gulp of air into his lungs "Well, looks…like I found…the bottom!" he rasped, wheezily, trying to catch his breath "Or rather, my bottom found the bottom…owie…"
He rubbed indignantly at his bruised tailbone, complaining loudly, when he realized that there was something large, human shaped and blue between him and the floor below.
"Strange. I didn't expect the floor in hell to have cushioning…" He mused, shifting around to study the thing more closely.
The thing which had broken his fall stirred and groaned, then emitted what sounded like a muffled collection of curses. Dante couldn't help but grin like a madman. Not that he was relieved or anything, you understand.
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A/N: Poor Vergil! When you think about it, the weight of Dante plus two ridiculously large swords, ammo rounds, large boots and two guns wouldn't be something you wanted landing on you from an infinite height. Ouchies.
Sorry the chapter was so short! Nothing much happened, I know, but I felt the need to get inside Dante's head before sending him careering off the path of canon.
Please review, and I'll update sooner!